Biohazard
by BlackDragon524
Summary: What started as a peaceful and hopefully romantic getaway for Jimmy and Cindy turns into a race against time, nature, and everything inbetween as they fight new enemies, one a human, the other a biological menace. No longer on hiatus! Chapter 7 is now up!
1. Now Boarding

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

**

* * *

**

**Biohazard**

**By BlackDragon524**

**Chapter 1**

**Now Boarding...**

**

* * *

**

Aside from one, minor, insignificant incident on the corner of Fifth Avenue and HurstonDrive, it was another day of blissful peace in the quaint little town of Retroville, Texas, a small but civilized hamlet of about 46,000 people, give or take a couple hundred or so. This era of calm and tranquility is a sharp contrast to the city's past where incidents such as alien invasion, imminent destruction, teenage superhero mayhem, and other common movie plot ideas were common and yet somehow went unnoticed by the United States government and national news media despite Fort Luke, an Army military and training depot, being located just fifteen miles south of it. However, in recent years, such events decreased in frequency until they never happened. Usually.

This drop of mayhem and carnage is attributed to the maturation of one James 'Jimmy' Isaac Neutron, hometown and internationally recognized child prodigy and genius, as well as his group of friends, particularly that of Cynthia 'Cindy' Aurora Vortex. Ridiculous names aside, from the age of 10, Jimmy, Cindy, and their friends Carl Wheezer, Libby Folfax, and Sheen Estevez, have been responsible for what has to have been close to nearly 1.7 million dollars worth of collateral damage in their 'adventures.' However, as the years went on, one could say that Jimmy and his friends thankfully 'grew out of' destroying their hometown on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, this deeply wounded the construction industry that had curiously taken shop in Retroville at around the time Jimmy was 4.

As far as to the reason for this peace, no one really knows why Jimmy's inventions stopped leveling a third of the city every time he tried to test it and something went terribly, terribly wrong. Quite frankly, however no one cared, as long as it meant that their insurance premiums could go back down. However, some people think that it may have had to do with his arch-rival in pretty much of everything, Cindy.

The story of Jimmy Neutron and Cindy Vortex is like that of Romeo and Juliet, except that neither of them are dead, Cindy usually punches Jimmy in the face, or Jimmy has absolutely no idea about women, but usually any combination of the three. Alright, so the story of Jimmy and Cindy is absolutely nothing like that of Romeo and Juliet. That point aside, for some reason, after a brief stint as a junior news anchor, Jimmy's inventions coincidentally ceased to destroy things accidentally and peace and tranquility replaced it.

This brings us back towards the one minor, insignificant incident on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Hurstron Drive. Outside of the Candy Bar, a popular hangout for many of the local school kids and the hangout of choice by Jimmy and the Gang since elementary school, it was clear that not all old habits died out. This particular example had been going on for the last thirty minutes.

"I'm telling you!" screeched Cindy, a slender-bodied, 17 year old blonde. "There is no way--Let me repeat, no way in HELL that we are going to Cancun for Spring Break! I happen to like having all my kidneys and other vital organs inside me where they belong, thank you very much!"

In the last six years, Cindy Vortex had grown to be a beautiful young woman, a fact that Cindy did not attempt to hide. Her body had developed curves that elevated her to a popularity among their high school's male populus that was equal to that of Betty Quinlan who had been the most popular girl in school since elementary school. Her clothes complimented her new feminine wiles, her white khakis fitting tightly to the curves of her legs while the light green blouse clung to her top tightly. As far as her intelligence goes, despite the stereotypes surrounding her hair color, Cindy was by no means a ditzy blonde; she possessed an intellectual capacity that made her more than a match for the boy genius in front of her.

"Well, a lot better than going to Hawaii!" retorted her former rival Jimmy Neutron, now 17.

Like Cindy, he too had changed, but more drastically. Puberty blessed him with a stronger, broader-shouldered, and slightly more muscular build that was just in time for high school and being 5'8" was something that he enjoyed. He frequently (and literally) held it over Cindy who was now subject to the short jokes she had used on them when they were kids. Plus, he had developed a more mature, more manly (and yet still scientific) sense of attire; instead of his old red T-shirt and blue jeans, he had gone ahead and dressed a bit more... Texan: blue jeans, white T-shirt, red button-up shirt over that, and a pair of brown ropers. More importantly, he got rid of the stupid, ice cream scoop-shaped haircut after figuring out that it would save him a great deal of pain and ridicule coming into high school; now, he wore his chestnut colored hair combed to the side in a professional, charming hair style that won him slight notoriety amongst the high school girls. His inherent geekiness, however... Usually turned them away... Well, all but one in any case.

With crossed arms, Cindy glared at him. "What's wrong with Hawaii? When's the last time you've ever heard of someone having their liver cut out and replaced with a pineapple in Oahu? Huh? Oh, I know, NEVER!"

"You can only see so much in Hawaii, Cindy. 'Ooh! Look! Water! And pineapples! And water! It's the same thing over and over again. At least in Cancun you can go out explore, see other cultures, and-"

"Get your kidneys stolen!" she interrupted. Crossing her arms, Cindy glared at Jimmy. "The only reason you want to go to Cancun is because you still want to prove to everybody in school that you're _so_ tough." Sucking in her stomach, she began to parade around in a parody of 'Tough Jimmy' as Jimmy looked on bemusedly and passers-by glanced with amusement. "Oh look at me, I'm Jimmy Neutron, I'm so tough. I went to Cancun over Spring Break and got into a knife fight because I didn't want to have actual fun and relax in Hawaii with the real genius, Cindy Vortex." She rolled her eyes. "Prove your manhood on your own time and without risk of me having one of my organs ripped from me while I'm knocked out in a bathtub in some random apartment bathroom. Because I happen to like my organs!"

"I don't have to prove anything to anyone, Vortex, especially not my toughness." He scoffed and crossed his arms, looking off smugly. "And back to the point, Hawaii is just so overrated. All you do really is sit around on a beach and stare at the water. We might as well just fly down to Galveston and do that. There's nothing we can't do in Hawaii that we can do in Cancun, and Cancun is closer."

"Uh, hello? Galveston's beaches are God awful. I mean, come on! The water is green! As a scientist, you should know that's never a good thing. And another thing, if the activities are the same, why don't we, oh, I don't know... Go to the nicer looking place?!"

"Like Cancun?" Jimmy replied wryly.

"Like Hawaii, Nerdtron! Ha-wai-ii! Do I got to spell it out for ya, Big Brain?"

"If it helps you learn how to spell, Vortex, then by all means! But we're going to Cancun!"

"Why you little-"

"Hey, look who's talkin', shrimpy."

"By two inches! And if it were four years ago, you'd still be shorter!"

"But it's not four years ago, is it?"

"Whatever! Back on topic: Hawaii!"

"Cancun!"

"Hawaii!"

"Cancun!"

"Hawaii!"

"Cancun!"

"Hawaii!"

"Cancun!"

"Cancun!"

"Hawaii! And that's final!" Jimmy blinked. "... Wait a second... Hey! Don't think you can get me with that old trick."

"Just did." Cindy stuck her tongue out."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Not."

"Too."

"Not!"

"Too!"

Meanwhile, while the two teenagers bickered like third graders, several feet away in a dark green Honda Accord sat an African American woman rolled her eyes and pressed her forehead in irritation at the window. She then looked over at her boyfriend, a tall, skinny Mexican boy. "Sheen, are they _still _goin' at it?!" she asked in disdainful disbelief.

Like their two friends, Libby and Sheen had matured greatly. Libby had filled out gracefully in her hips, but she now kept her hair in a slightly conservative ponytail. Her fashion sense did not dim in any way either, however, due to her upbringing, it had, like her hair, become slightly more conservative... for a teenager, at any rate. As opposed to her childhood wardrobe, her latest fashion fix found her wearing a tight, black, v-neck, T-shirt underneath a purple and black plaid jacket.

On the other hand, Sheen had... Well, Sheen grew taller, standing at least six inches taller than any of his friends. He was still a bit skinny, however, but Libby was still quite satisfied with the muscles that Sheen's position in the swim team had given him. His black, spikey haircut from days past remained, and as for his clothes... Thankfully for Libby, his job at McSpanky's could only afford him the latest in Ultralord shirts and shoes as opposed to his dreams for an entirely custom-tailored Ultralord suit.

Sheen, next to her in the back seat, shrugged as he proofread his latest Ultralord fan fiction on his laptop. "Hey Libs, what's another word for smart and brilliant and supreme-super-awesome? I've used all of 'em like a jillion times here already."

Libby sighed exasperatedly, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "Not. You. How's that?"

"... Is that one word or two?"

"... I give up..." Groaning, she smacked her head against the window. "Man, sometimes I wish I'd taken Carl up on his offer to go to that stupid llama lovers summit in the Alps. It'd be a Helluva lot easier than puttin' up with this stupid crap."

It was at this time that Jimmy and Cindy entered the car, still arguing. "Look, how about we take a general consensus," Jimmy proposed, looking in the rearview mirror back at Sheen and Libby with a seemingly victorious smirk on his face. "Sheen, Libby, you guys pick. Cancun or Hawaii?"

* * *

The next afternoon, Jimmy found himself sitting unhappily in one of the very affluent Folfax family's private jet's passenger seats. In retrospect, it was a bad idea on his part to ask Libby of all people to decide whose idea was better, his or Cindy's. As her best friend, Libby naturally sided with Cindy and as Libby's boyfriend, Sheen had no choice but to side with Libby for fear of severe injury; also, he offered his excuse as that whatever his "sugar-lump" wanted, so did he. Libby was quick to give Sheen a "sugar-lump" on the top of his head.

Wanting to get this over as soon as possible, he was the first to arrive at the private airport terminal and the first on. Goddard was left with his parents who were making their yearly trip to the Duck Lover's Festival in Albany, New York. While he was waiting for the others, he had opened the window to look outside of it. Despite the fact that Retroville was an exceptionally small town by modern standards, it had all of the luxuries of any other city, except downscaled. It had its own city bank, two large hospitals (one on each side of the city), a Downtown district complete with its share of skyscrapers, and of course the airport.

The area surrounding Retroville, however, was near symbolic of America itself geographically; to the West and South, arid desert land with cacti and sand and to the North and East, lush green decidiuous and coniferous forests, the man-made Lake Retroville sitting only 25 miles to the North. The airport was 8 miles away from the center of town and was built over what was once and was currently surrounded by (save the roads) forest. At least this gave Jimmy something to stare at in the 15 minutes he had been sitting, waiting for someone to show up.

His wait would not last much longer, however. He looked over to the open stairway leading up into the jet when he heard footsteps climb up them. As his luck would have it, naturally it was Cindy, a victorious smirk on her face and a suitcase in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. Dressed for the occasion, she wore a green and yellow floral Hawaiian shirt that hung just above mid-thigh. "You like?" Cindy said teasingly as she posed, gesturing at the shirt. "Look, I bought one for you too! It's your favorite color!" She promptly pulled a red and yellow floral-patterned Hawaiian shirt and flung it at Jimmy's head.

Bemusedly pulling it off his head, he glared at her slightly before sighing. "You're not gonna make this easy in any way, are you?" he muttered as he examined it, turning it this way and that.

"Nope," was the simple reply. Without another word, Cindy plopped herself down beside him. "Oh cheer up, will ya?" she finally said, rolling her eyes. "You're acting like such a big baby."

"... So?" Jimmy crossed his arms.

"_So_..." Cindy replied through gritted teeth, punching him in the arm, "stop acting like a baby!" A sigh. "God, do you even know why I suggested Hawaii in the first place?"

"Because you know that I've been there so many times to present my new military hovercar prototype that I'm practically sick of seeing the same beaches over again? Or because you know I hate to lose any arguement with you?" he replied wryly.

"No," she replied softly, her hazel eyes softening. "Jimmy, we've been 'together,'" putting the last word in air quotes, "for the last six years and what have we had to show for it?" she asked poignantly. It was true. The two first kissed after the end of their stint as news anchors and since then, all the way through high school, they had been what was technically 'a couple.' She looked at him sadly and sincerely, the expression on her face tearing at Jimmy's conscience. "I was just hoping that we could actually make this trip... a nice one, you know?"

But did they ever go on dates like a couple? No. Did they ever hold hands in public like a couple? No. Make out? No. Fight frequently? Naturally. There was no break from the usual status quo of bickering that characterized their friendship other than the fact that they were shyer than ever to make a generous gesture towards the other. However, after their usual fights and disagreements, then came a moment similar to the present one where they would reconcile and start acting like a couple. Then, the cycle would repeat.

Jimmy sighed before putting the Hawaaian shirt on, putting it over his signature red T-shirt with an atom symbol on the front. He then took her hand in his, to which Cindy responded with a blush and a sheepish look. "Look... I'm sorry, alright?"

She sighed and nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. She smirked inwardly as she heard him gulp nervously and took with great satisfaction at the apparent fact that she could make the so-called Great Jimmy Neutron nervous. "It's okay... I know you can't help but be a stubborn, pig-headed idiot."

He simply gave her yet another bemused glanced before smirking at her. "I guess you're just rubbing off on me, then," he replied with a devilish glint in his dark brown eyes. His remark was responded by a playful slap on the back of his head.

"We ain't even left yet and y'all are fightin'," Libby joked as she climbed up the stairs, followed by Sheen carrying both his and Libby's luggage. The taller Mexican boy seemed to struggle as he reached the last step, trying not to fall back down the stairs.

Cindy and Jimmy quickly left each other's side, crimson tints on their cheeks, both looking in the opposite direction. Libby rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation as she took a seat closer to the cockpit, by the window. Noticing his friend's plight with the stairs and seeing an oppurtunity to break the awkward silence, Jimmy asked Sheen, who was still trying not to fall backwards with what had to have been at least 50 pounds worth of luggage, "You need any help Sheen?"

"I got it!" Sheen replied tersely as he tried to push himself up that last step. "Almost there! I almost got it! I got it!" As he pushed himself up, he lost his balance. "I don't got it! I don't got it!" He fell out of view and down the stairs, Libby's luggage, which was on top of the stack he was carrying, falling forward into the cabin while his luggage fell with him. He hit the tarmac of the runway with a resounding _THUD_, followed by a slightly muffled second _THUD_.

Libby, Cindy, and Jimmy walked over to the door and peered down the stairs at Sheen, covered in the contents of his luggage which had split open and landed on his head. "You alright, baby?" Libby asked, attempting to force back the giggles the slapstick incident was threatening to illicit while Jimmy and Cindy snickered freely.

Taking the suitcase off of his head, Sheen smiled at her lazily, a dazed look in his unfocused eyes as tiny little birdies flew over his head (in his mind, anyways). "Me's okay! Me's very... sleepy... nap-nap time... Good night mommy..." He fell backwards, unconscious.

Jimmy sighed as he descended the stairs. "Come on, Cindy, help me carry him up. I'll grab his head, you grab his legs. I'll check for a concussion once we're in the air," he muttered. Cindy followed behind him, leaving Libby standing in the threshold of the doorway, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"This is gonna be a loooong trip..."

* * *

After a quick refueling stop in Los Angeles, the four teenagers found themselves about an hour's flight away from Honolulu International Airport, flying at a high altitude over the Pacific Ocean. Given that it was nearly 11 and they wouldn't be landing for another hour or so, it was agreed that it was best to check out and sleep the rest of the flight. While Libby and Sheen were cuddled up near the front for warmth from the chilly air of the jet cabin interior, Cindy stared up at the ceiling of the cabin. She looked up suddenly when she sensed someone walking down the aisle, seeing Jimmy returning from the restroom.

"Can't sleep?" he whispered as sat down beside her.

Cindy looked away. "Yeah," she muttered.

"Cold?"

She shook her head. Although it was pretty chilly, it didn't bother her exceptionally. "Not really... Just kinda excited, ya know?" She leaned her head on his shoulder after he sat down.

He chuckled wryly. "Of course you would be." He smiled at her gently. "So... what plans did you have for this trip?"

Cindy giggled slightly. "Well, for one thing... I was wondering if maybe, sometime..." She smiled sheepishly over at him. "We could ditch Libby and Sheen and go to that island of ours? Remember?"

Jimmy laughed quietly. He remembered alright. It was six years ago when he and Cindy got into a stupid arguement about the equator or Australian or something to that effect, leading to them being stranded in a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. It was probably there that the giant snowball that was his and Cindy's relationship began; until Carl, Sheen, and Libby had shown up, they had an island paradise all to themselves and if left to their own devices... Who knew what could've happened...

He nodded. "I remember... And," he smiled slyly, "I recorded the location of the island on my watch's GPS... If you'd like then maybe I... can borrow one of my inventions from Wheeler Army Airfield... Maybe that prototype hovercar... Maybe give it a test drive?"

Cindy giggled and rested her head on his chest. "James Isaac Neutron... I never thought I'd see the day when you would actually think of something romantic..."

"Yeah, me neither."

The two blinked and then turned to the source of the feminine sounding voice. There was Libby, a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon on her face, holding her camera phone. "Libby!" Cindy screeched indignantly, ripping herself from Jimmy. "Turn that off!"

"Uh-uh, girl, this is goin' on MySpace!" she laughed as she continued recording her friends' embarassing moment. "Now, what's this about running off to some random island?" Her question was promptly answered with a travel pillow being thrown at her face as the private jet continued on its way towards Honolulu.

* * *

**l 11°15'N 162°12'W l 50 miles below sea level l Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean l**

The most noticeable thing about the man was the scar on his face that ran from his scalp, underneath an eyepatch across his left eye, down his cheek, and towards his jaw. He sported a buzzcut that was hidden underneath an olive military officer's cap. He was also dressed in an olive military uniform, the stars of a 3-star general officer of the United States military sitting on his epaulettes. He stood at attention as he examined the monitors before him.

Displayed were live footage of key locations of his plan. New York City. Los Angeles. Tokyo. Hong Kong. Dubai. London. Beijing. Moscow. Washington DC. All key elements to his master plan. All essential dominoes that needed to be knocked down, one by one; or all at once, if the need arises. His stoic face twitched into a sadistic smile, aged yellow teeth clenched in an agonizing, bitter, victorious smirk as his single eye scanned the monitors.

He heard the hiss of the hydraulic doors parting, followed by steel toe boots clanking along the metal floor as it approached him. "General!"

The General turned around to find a man half his age dressed in a black colored version of a military service uniform standing at-attention, presenting him with a salute. Returning it, the General replied, "At ease, Lieutenant. Status report." His deep voice resonated around the interior of the room, sending an involuntarily shiver down the younger man's spine.

"All facilities are operating at 100% efficiency, sir," the soldier reported. "We currently have enough deployment capsules to spread across the Americas and half of China. The required amount for the entire world should be ready by next week, sir."

The General nodded. "Any word from Professor Meir?"

"Yes sir. Professor Meir reports that Agent Fire is currently undergoing testing. Preliminary reports are still inconclusive for the moment, but look promising."

"How promising, Lieutenant?"

"Very, General. I'm... not sure what all of it means entirely, but Professor Meir says that Agent Fire is capable of something called 'triggered incubation.' Also, he reports that Agent Fire appears to exhibit symptoms similar to the common cold. Untraceable, sir."

"Excellent. And the other agent? Agent Water?"

"Sir... Professor Meir has stressed that Agent Fire must be perfected before Agent Water can go under any development."

"Of course, of course... Very good, Lieutenant." He snapped off a sharp salute. "Dis-missed." Returning the salute, the soldier did an about face and marched out of the room. After he left, the General turned back to the monitor screens, just in time for the DC monitor to switch to a frontal view of the White House. He chuckled darkly, a chilling sound akin to the tolls of a funeral bell that echoed throughout the room, as he glared with a demented, focus fixation at the home of President of the United States.


	2. Aloha! Jimmy Neutron

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 2**

**Aloha! Jimmy Neutron**

* * *

Despite the local time, the four tired teenagers made a beeline straight to their hotel, the Halekulani, situated in the midst of pretty much every single hotel on Honolulu. Thanks to the Folfax family's connections with the arisocrats of the world, Libby was able to pull some strings and got the four of them situated in two Diamond Head Suites (named so for their impressive view of the Diamond Head volcanic crater). Each of these suites had two bedrooms, and the arrangement was simple: Jimmy and Cindy in one suite, Sheen and Libby in the other.

Although Jimmy and Cindy were initially flustered at having to stay in the same suite with each other, they realized simultaneously that it made sneaking off to their special island some day during the break much, much easier. So, with only a small bit of fuss and name-calling to keep up their cover, they had checked into their rooms, too tired to bask in the complete elegance of the Diamond Head Suite just yet, and decided to turn in for the night. They left for their connected bedrooms and as soon as their things hit the floor and their heads hit the pillows, they had passed out dead asleep.

This leads us to the following morning.

There was another alterior motive Jimmy had for not wanting to go to Hawaii. It was because Hawaii was four hours behind that of Texas because of the timezone. So, while they had landed in Hawaii at a quarter past midnight in Texas time, it was just a quarter past 8 in Hawaii Standard Time. And when Jimmy woke up that morning at what was 9 o'clock Texas time, it was 5 o'clock Hawaii time.

And because the sun had yet to rise and shine through the window of his hotel room, Jimmy could not see very well. Nor, given that he was still groggy from sleep and was thrown off by the lack of sunlight at what he still considered to be 9 AM, could he think very well. Also, it was pitch black, so that probably helped in his momentary blindness.

Bumbling out of bed, he staggered to his feet and headed towards where he thought was the restroom. Instead, the door he opened led him into Cindy's room, who was still sound asleep and wearing a sleep mask. Walking past her and unable to notice her through his half-lidded eyes, he strolled straight into her bathroom and turned on the light. He was blinded by the sudden blast of bright fluorescent light and shielded his eyes with his hands.

This is how he came to notice his watch which, since he had designed its GPS function to cooperate with the simpler watch function to automatically change the time based on timezone location, read the correct time as being 5:19 AM.

"Leaping Leptons," he muttered as he flicked the light off and made his way back into the bedroom. Cindy's bedroom to be specific. Disoriented, still sleepy, and blinded by the darkness, he crawled into one side of Cindy's bed. Grabbing the covers, he pulled them over him, yanking some of it off Cindy.

Several seconds passed before Cindy began to shiver. Groping blindly behind her, she grabbed a handful of covers, inadverdantly yanking them off of Jimmy and back onto herself. Several more seconds passed before Jimmy shivered and pulled the blankets back to him. Cindy tugged back. The two pulled lazily at the blankets in a humorous, haphazard tug-of-war before Cindy's eyes jolted open suddenly in the realization that someone was pulling at her blankets.

Jimmy reached a similar realization.

Cindy ripped off her sleep mask and the two red-faced teens turned abruptly to face each other and stared bug-eyed for a moment. Cindy was the first to react. Slapping Jimmy hard across the face, she gathered the covers around her scantily dressed body, being in only a sleeveless night gown and nothing else. "NEUTRON!" she screeched angrily as an equally furious red hued crossed her face. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Rubbing his sore cheek, Jimmy blushed when he realized just where he was. "Wait, me?! What are you doing in my bed, Vortex?"

"Your bed? This is my bed!" Cindy pointed at her stuff before pointing at Jimmy accusingly. "Just what kind of girl do you think I am?"

Seeing Cindy's things, Jimmy gulped nervously. "Okay, wait, I can explain!"

"Explain, huh? You got five seconds before I pop you in the nose, Neutron," she cracked her knuckles threateningly.

"... I was sleepy and couldn't see well and thought your bathroom was mine and your bed was mine?" he said feebly, tensing himself in preparation for a punch in the face.

"..." Cindy pulled her hand back to punch Jimmy, but settled instead for shoving him roughly off her bed. She sighed. "That explanation was so lame and stupid, it couldn't have possibly been made up, even by you. I'll let you live this time, Neutron. But if I catch you pulling another stunt like that again..."

Brushing himself off, Jimmy stood up. "Yeah, yeah, you'll ring my neck, you'll smash my face in, you'll use my spine as a xylophone."

"You forgot using that thick skull of yours as a bongo drum," she added wryly as she looked over at him, pulling the bedsheets over her slightly.

"Oh, how could I forget that one?" he muttered sarcastically as he walked over to her bedroom's balcony view. He then turned around and smiled softly at her. "Before I went to sleep last night, I... decided to find out when the Sun's going to rise for the entire week and a half we'll be here... Hurry up or you're gonna miss it."

As quickly as the situation had gone from awkward to hostile and now to romantic, Cindy tossed the covers off and strolled up to Jimmy, smiling softly back at him. Jimmy slid open first the curtain covering the slide door leading onto the balcony and then the slide door itself. The crisp sting of the morning ocean breeze on their skin and its aromatic scent filled their senses as they stepped onto the balcony. They now felt an immense gratitude to Libby and her family's connections to the Halekulani's management that gave them the Diamond Suite.

From behind the Diamond Head volcanic crater, the first rays of sunlight for the day pierced the receding night sky like a knight's lance banishing his enemies into nothingness. As the light grew brighter, the murky ocean waves glowed a beautiful, unearthly hue of blue that contrasted against the pale gold of the beach sand. A flock of seagulls, eager for their morning feast, swooped over the volcanic crater and swept down into the water like dive bombers, plunging into the water in one second and emerging the next with their prey in beak.

The Sun followed the birds as they soared back into the sky. A halo was cast around volcanic crater as the Sun rose above it. Cindy sighed blissfully and leaned against Jimmy's chest. In turn, Jimmy's right arm wrapped around her waist, holding her closer. To any outsider, this would seem to be a soft and tender moment. To anyone who actually knew the two, they would wonder what insane parallel dimension they had awoken in, then blame it on a case of bad shellfish.

It was a promising start to their vacation. Time passed quickly in content silence as they watched the Sun rise high over the sky and the darkness of the night disappearing. Three hours has passed while they stared contently at the island slowly awakening before them. Jimmy had propped her in his lap as he sat down in a patio chair, holding her closely to him. Cindy smiled up at Jimmy tenderly, ignoring the slight tinge of pink that crested her cheeks. "Jimmy?"

"Yeah Cindy?" he asked, looking down at her, catching her dual orbs of hazel, staring intely into them.

She paused for a moment, staring back up into his crystalline blue eyes. There were words that needed to be spoken. She swallowed back her nervousness loudly in preparation to utter them. Slowly the courage arose. "Jimmy... There's something I have to tell you..."

"What is it, Cindy?"

"Jimmy... I..."

A door slammed back in the main living area of their suite. "Jimmy? Cindy? Ya in here?" called Sheen as he roamed aimlessly about. "Time for breakfast!" he said cheerfully. Sticking his head into Cindy's bedroom, he chimed. "Libby sent me over to wake you guys. Hurry up! They got a buffet! A breakfast buffet! For the love of Ultralord, need I say more?!"

The moment was lost, now, Cindy realized. She could feel the rumble from Jimmy's stomach as well as her own, telling her that there was no use trying to bring it back up and salvage the moment. Jimmy smiled down at Cindy. "Come on, let's eat!" He stood up and set Cindy down before running into his room to change.

Cindy gritted her teeth angrily as she glared over at the front door to the suite which Sheen had left unclosed as he undoubtedly ran down to help himself to the breakfast buffet. Walking over to the door, she slammed it shut, the hinges cracking from the force. As she changed, images of many violent deaths for Sheen danced in her head.

* * *

"Girl, what's wrong with you? You've been trifilin' all mornin'. What'd Jimmy say to you this time?" Libby's interrogation was followed by her stuffing a healthy fork-full of hash browns into her mouth.

Cindy grumbled angrily as she bit at her breakfast sausage. Ever since the incident this morning that had prevented another (preferred) incident from happening, she had been in a sour mood, although she tried to hide it from Jimmy as best as she could. It wasn't hard, though; Sheen had challenged Jimmy to a who-can-scarf-the-most-pancakes contest and, despite being a genius, Jimmy's male pride wouldn't let him turn down the offer.

"Jimmy didn't say anything. In fact, I was going to say something before Sheen decided to barge in," she muttered, shooting Sheen another glare as poured a flask of maple syrup directly onto his mouth before stuffing a whole pancake into it.

"Wham mer woo gowwa say?" Libby asked before swallowing her hash browns. "Sorry. What were you gonna say?"

Cindy looked away. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Uh-huh," Libby said skeptically, crossing her arms. "Spill." At Cindy's hesitant look, Libby sighed. "Look, I already know what you were gonna say, so I'll just save us the time. You were gonna say those three little words, huh?" She nearly laughed at Cindy's astonished look.

"How did you-"

"Girl, we been knowin' each other since kindergarten. I think I outta know what goes on in that head of yours by now, especially when it's concerning a certain boy genius you been pinin' after since we met him in 2nd Grade." Libby chuckled and slouched back in her chair, relaxing leisurely as she delighted in her friend's inner turmoil. "Now," she said, a smirk worthy of the Cheshire Cat on her face, "spill."

Cindy sighed. "Me and Jimmy actually had a... moment..."

Libby squealed excitedly and grabbed her friend's hands. "Ooh! Do tell! Do tell!" Her squeal momentarily drew the attention of Jimmy and Sheen before Sheen began to choke on a piece of pancake. Jimmy promptly rushed around to give Sheen the Heimlich maneuver.

The two girls turned their attention back to each other. Cindy blushed slightly. "Do I have to?" she groaned. "You know how I am with sharing... personal stuff..."

Libby rolled her eyes. "Either you tell me, or I start assumin' and you know how I like my imagination run wild, girl."

Cindy sighed once more, resting her head on her hand, toying with her eggs with her fork. "Well... It was... perfect, really..." She smiled, remembering the events of that morning. Omitting the... embarassing events that led up to it, she started directly with the events at the balcony. "Well... we woke up kinda early, you know, because of the time zone thing... And, well, we talked a bit, and Jimmy..." She blushed and ducked her head. "Well, he had this great idea to watch the sunrise with me..." She looked up at Libby sheepishly. "It was... amazing, Libby. That Diamond Head volcanic crater? Beautiful. It was just so awesome... I never thought Jimmy could be so sweet..."

Libby frowned. "Sounds like you had a great time. What happened that made you go all..." She then did a spot-on imitation of Cindy's prior mood, sulking, and stabbing angrily at her egg before chewing on it angrily. This received a reprimanding yet playful kick in the shin from Cindy. Libby then looked at Cindy sternly, glancing a threatening look back at Jimmy before turning back to Cindy. "So what happened?"

"Sheen happened."

After blinking several times, she turned to look at Sheen threateningly before turning back at Cindy. After she turned back, Sheen shivered. "Hey Jim? You ever had that feeling like someone wants to kill you and melt all your Ultralord action figures?" he asked Jimmy.

Jimmy shook his head slowly. "... No... Why?"

"Just wonderin'..."

Sighing, Libby shook her head. "I am so sorry Cind... I didn't know that you two were having a, uh... moment." She smirked slyly.

Cindy smiled slightly. "It's alright. Hey, we have an entire week and a half to enjoy ourselves. I'm sure it'll come up again..."

"That-a girl," Libby added, smiling. "Now, come on. Let's get the boys and head over to the beach while we can still fit in our swim suits."

* * *

Cindy rolled her eyes as she leaned against the door frame. Wearing only a yellow sundress over her new bikini, she shivered as the hotel suite's A/C picked up and chilled the room. "What's taking Neutron so long?" she mused in annoyance as she glanced over at the boy genius' room. Gritting her teeth, she stormed over and knocked on the door. "Neutron! Hurry up! I want to go the beach sometime this millenium!"

"Yeah, just give me a second, alright Cindy?"

She sighed. "What could possibly be taking you so long? I'm a girl and I don't even take this long to get ready!" She crossed her arms and glared holes into the door. "You've got 'till the count of ten before I'm coming in there and dragging you to the beach."

"Cindy, just give me one second, alright?"

"One..."

"Cindy, hold on, will-"

"Two..."

"Look, just give me a second, I gotta finish this-"

"Ten!"

Cindy grabbed the door knob and flung the door open. "What the-"

"Cindy, it's not what it looks like!"

"Is... this a bad time?"

"Neutron... What is going on?!"

Jimmy cleared his throat and straightened out his lab coat and tie. He was presently dressed in his usual laboratory attire, a portfolio in his hand and a holographic chart of what appeared to be schematics for his prototype jet car. Beside the hologram projector was another one, this one displaying a screen where an Army colonel was clearing his throat slightly, attempting to avoid being involved in any way in the awkward situation.

"Uh... I can explain," Jimmy started meekly but was cut off by Cindy's hand.

She shook her head. "I can't believe you... Honestly, Nerdtron, you're working while on _vacation_?! What's wrong with you?!"

"I should probably go..." the Colonel muttered as he slowly and discreetly disconnected the video feed, much to Jimmy's dismay. At least with company present, Cindy was less liable to physically harm him.

"He better run," the indignant blonde fumed before turning her fury back towards Jimmy. "As for you! I didn't think I'd have to say this because I thought you'd be smart enough to know, but a vacation means taking a break from work! Not taking it with you! Especially not when it means taking up precious time that could be spent having fun. You know what fun is, right?"

Jimmy sighed. "Yes," he replied in annoyance, "I know what fun is. But this is kinda important, Cindy. I mean, the United States military doesn't exactly have all the time in the world."

"They can wait a week!" she snapped. In an instant, her hand was at Jimmy's coat collar, pulling him down to her eye level. "Now listen here, Professor Big Brain. I don't care how important this project is to you. You promised to me on the plane that we are going to have a good time. Now, I want you to promise that not only are we going to have a good time, you're not going to be wasting our time here doing more of your stupid projects and experiments! We got a week. It can wait until then. Got it?" she glared threateningly.

Jimmy nodded compliantly and silently. "Alright, promise, promise." He pulled himself out of Cindy's vicious Kung Fu grip, miraculously, and took off his lab coat, throwing it over to his bed before beginning to undo his tie. "Just wait outside, alright?"

Crossing her arms, Cindy shook his head defiantly. "Oh no. You're liable to start that stupid thing up again and finish your little meeting. I'm staying right here, now get out of that stupid lab get up and get dressed. I'm not leaving until you do. Now hurry up and get undressed."

An awkward silence fell between the two as the innuendo behind what Cindy had just said dawned upon them. Cindy blushed furiously and looked away while Jimmy fell into a spontaneous coughing fit.

"Uh... what I meant was..."

"Yeah, I... uh..."

"I'm gonna... go... wait outside, now..."

"Great, er, good..."

"Ahem..."

After meagerly excusing herself from Jimmy's room, she closed the door slowly behind her before slowly sliding against the wall down to the floor, and holding her knees to her chest, burying her crimson face in them. Meanwhile, she kicked herself mentally as she waited for Jimmy to finish getting dressed. A couple of minutes passed and the door knob began to turn. She looked over at the door as it opened.

"How do I look?" Jimmy asked as he looked down at his clothes, a pair of red swim trunks with a yellow stripe down the size and the red and yellow Hawaiian shirt Cindy had bought for him before the trip. He smirked at Cindy's reaction, a blush and a subtle, shy nod. There was a knock on the door. Much to Cindy's relief, Jimmy walked over to open it and she had time to compose herself.

As she had thought, it was Sheen and Libby. "Y'all about done yet?" she asked as Jimmy opened the door.

Jimmy nodded. "Yep, we all ready to go?" he asked everyone as Cindy picked up her beach bag from the couch and walked over to join Jimmy at the door. At everyone's nods and various grunts of approval, he smiled. "Then let's get to the beach!"

* * *

"Over there, over there!"

"That's too small! We're not gonna fit in there!"

"Oh, come on! Did that guy really have to take up _two_ whole parking spaces? That's illegal!"

"Well, he did, and I don't think we can really move it. We'll just have to find another one."

"Jimmy! Over there!"

"That's a crosswalk, Sheen!"

"They can walk around." _THWACK!_ "Ow! But Sugarlumps..."

"I'm a sugahlump you one mo time in a second if you don't shut up. This is all your fault anyways."

"How is it my fault?"

"If you hadn't INSISTED we stop at that stupid nutjob newstand to pick up that stupid, fake newspaper, we might've found a parking spot by now!"

"Hey! Conspiracy Weekly is an informative and intellectual newspaper the likes of you would never understand. Plus, this week's issue has a continued article about Bigfoot's spaceship!"

"... Like I said. A stupid, fake newspaper."

"Oh will you two give it a rest? Jimmy, there's one!"

"I'm trying to signal in, but this jerk in the Beamer won't let me in- Oh, great! He just cut me off and went in!"

"Why I outta-"

Parking at one of Hawaii's most presigious and beautiful beaches was not the most pleasant of experiences, especially not when it was at its peak tourist traffic in the busiest time of the year. As Libby and Sheen restrained Cindy in her seat so that she wouldn't leap out and pummel the driver of the BMW sportscar, Jimmy continued to look for a parking spot.

"Hey, I think they're leaving," Jimmy said as he gestured to a family of Asian people. He drove up to them. "Excuse me, are you leaving?"

They gave him odd looks before looking back at Jimmy. "Nani?" asked the father of the family of what were apparently Japanese tourists.

"I got this Jim," Sheen said proudly as he looked over to the Japanese family. "Languages were always a cinch to me." Libby pinched the bridge of her nose, having a bad feeling about where Sheen was going with this. Sheen cleared his throat. "Konichi wa! Subaru honda civic!" He thought for a moment while the other occupants of the car sent him death glares. "Yamaha kawasaki motorcycles! Toyota! Arigato, Mr. Roboto!"

"Sheen, I don't think they understood you," Jimmy muttered sarcastically as the Japanese family walked off, chatting amongst themselves and giving the people in the car repeatedly odd looks. Jimmy put the car back into the drive and the search for a parking spot began once more and, initially, with very much change in luck.

Eventually, after a couple of more laps around the parking lot, Libby stood up excitedly from her rear seat in the rented red convertible. "There's one! There's one!" Everyone looked to where she was pointing, and like a partition in the clouds from where sunlight shone down from the Heavens, a lone parking spot stood in the midst of a sea of cars with no other cars in sight. Jimmy practically ran over a family of fellow tourists in his mad rush to park.

After they had gotten all of their things from the car, the group eagerly made their way for the beach. There, tourists and vacationers of all sizes, ages, races, and nationalities mingled on the Hawaiian sand and swam in the tides of the Hawaiian surf. At the sight of it all, they all smiled excitedly as they ran to an empty spot of sand by the waterline and set up camp.

"Want me to help you with your lotion, Libby-cakes?" Sheen asked as he tried to figure out how to set up his and Libby's beach umbrella while Libby searched in her bag for her sun tan lotion.

Libby gave him a skeptical look. "Are you going to keep your hands to yourself this time?" she asked him, referring to last year's Spring Break where Sheen spent more than half of it nursing a broken jaw.

Sheen gave an innocent look. "Libby-snookums, that hurt..." he pleaded pathetically.

"Not as much as it will when I bash your face in if you keep calling me those stupid nicknames," she muttered.

Across from the bickering couple, the surprisingly peaceful pair of Jimmy and Cindy were lying on their beach towels, Jimmy relaxing in the sun while Cindy sat underneath the shade of the umbrella as she applied sun tan lotion to her arms "Can't those two ever play nice?" Cindy chided jokingly to Jimmy.

"Glad to be on the other side of this conversation, huh?" Jimmy replied, chuckling slightly.

"You can say that again..." Cindy looked over at Jimmy, a devilish smile on her face. "Speaking of things you can say... Admit it."

Jimmy looked up at her, confusion evident on his face. "Admit what?"

"That I was right and you were wrong. That Hawaii is a hundred times better than Cancun. Oh, and did I mention the part about you being wrong?" She nearly laughed at the pained expression on Jimmy's face.

"... Do I have to?"

"Oh man up, Neutron!"

Jimmy sighed. Then, he took a deep breath. "... YouwererightIwaswrong." He spat out the words quickly, as if they were poisonous, which they were to his ego.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Cindy wagged her finger at him. "That doesn't count. Slower."

"You were..." His face contorted in anguish before he exhaled sharply. "Right. And I was wrong. Happy?"

"Very." She glanced over at Libby and Sheen. The former was holding the latter in a headlock, undoubtedly for the latter's use of yet another annoying nickname. Satisfied that they were distracted enough and that she wouldn't have to put up with Libby's teasing later, she leaned over and gave Jimmy a soft peck on the lips. "Now was that so hard?" she murmured softly.

Jimmy simply stared at her in shock, caught off guard for a moment. When he regained his composure, he smiled softly at her. "Guess not... You know... I think I'm starting to get used to this whole 'together' thing..."

* * *

The day came and went. After a boys versus girls volleyball game had gotten Libby in better spirits, they had all gone out into the surf, splashing water at each other, playing a game of chicken or two, and at some point, they rented some boogieboards. However, as the Sun began to set, Libby, seeing how well Jimmy and Cindy were actually bonding on this vacation, concocted a plan; leave the two alone, and maybe the peace can last all the way back to Retroville and then some.

After they reached the hotel, she told the plan to Sheen, who readily agreed and, wanting to 'stake his claim on his precious Libby and keep the stupid surfers away from her,' proposed to take her on a romantic evening. After borrowing about fifty dollars from Jimmy, the two left the hotel, taking a taxi out into the town.

Sheen was not the only one without romantic thoughts that evening. The kiss on the beach had given Jimmy a spark of enthusiasm and innitiative and with the proverbial ball rolling, he knocked on Cindy's door while she was drying off from her shower to get the sea smell off of her. "Hey Cindy?"

"Yeah?" she called from the bathroom.

"I was thinking..." He cleared his throat. "Uh... How's a movie sound? Maybe dinner?" He mentally reprimanded himself. 'No, stupid! No! Too strong. Too direct. Come on, Neutron, you know better than that!'

The door opened suddenly and Jimmy nearly flinched, anticipating a punch in the face. "James Isaac Neutron." He looked up slightly. "Are you asking me out on a date?" Cindy was leaning against the door frame, her green tanktop and white slacks clinging to her wet body as she brushed her wet hair. She smiled coyly, a look that wasn't usually directed towards him.

However, that look brought out his inner Casanova. He smirked slightly and leaned in closely to her. "And if I am?"

Cindy smirked back. "Then you better make it worth my while..."

"James Neutron never fails..." Cindy scoffed. "Except with certain experiments." A sarcastic laugh. "You're enjoying this way too much."

"Can you blame me?" Cindy asked, rolling her eyes. "What's the plan?"

The plan was simple. It was a classic in dating history. Then again, classics never become classics unless they actually work. After getting ready, the two went out to watch a movie in Downtown Honolulu. In an unorthodox twist, Cindy decided to avoid the usual, sappy romantic comedies. Jimmy was more than happy to take her to watch the Director's Cut of Axe-Murderer VII.

With Cindy clinging to his arm and cringing at random intervals, Jimmy decided to close the night with the ritualistic candle-lit dinner. For once, Cindy was grateful for Jimmy's connetions to the scientific communities in-roads to the higher echelons of the military and, subsequently, the government. After a couple of phone calls, the two high school students were ushered into a private seating at the top of a light house-shaped seafood restaurant, The Seaside Spire.

For once, the two acted like a young couple in love should. Occasional glances as they ate, sheepish smiles when their eyes caught each other, the embrace of one's arms around the others waist as the former performed the Heimlich to dislodge a piece of scallop she had choked on because of a joke he had told about how he, Sheen, and Carl were the ones to have their hated History teacher's car towed last month. Ah, to be young, in love, and not choking on scallops...

After dinner, they headed back to their hotel suite. They found themselves back on Cindy's balcony, as they had been that same morning. Once again, Cindy was sitting in Jimmy's lap, relaxing as the two of them stared at the night sky. The light from the full Moon and the stars shone down from the sky and cast a divine, white glow that reflected off of the rippling waves of the now-receding tides.

"Jimmy..." Cindy started, looking up at him from Jimmy's lap. "Tonight..." She chuckled slightly and rested her head on his chest. "I gotta admit, I didn't think you could pull it off, Neutron." They both laughed slightly at the use of the old nickname for Jimmy; once a term of ridicule, it was now used as mainly a term of endearment if anything else.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, _Vortex_." Again, they both laughed. "Can you believe we used to be such fierce enemies back then?"

"By back then, do you mean a couple of days ago when we were deciding on where to go for Spring Break this year?"

"What a difference a few hours can make, huh?"

Cindy simply nodded and they sat there for a moment longer before Cindy abruptly stood up, patting Jimmy's leg dismissively. "Well, it's getting late. We should head off to bed." Then, she blushed, attempting to hide it with a devilish smirk. "How about you... join me?"

Jimmy broke into a slight coughing fit before looking at Cindy with slight incredulity. "Is this a trick so you can finally have a reason to break my neck?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's nothing suggestive, Neutron, so get those thoughts out of your head. Ugh, you know what never-"

Her diatribe was stopped by his lips on hers, leaving her bug eyed and staring at him. "Alright, I'll join you..."

She smiled softly and nervously. "Um, I'll uh... Go get ready for bed..." She swallowed nervously and walked into her bedroom, grabbing her night gown and vanishing into her bathroom to change.

Jimmy simply shook his head and laughed in an attempt to hide his nervousness and slight discomfort as he followed her back into the suite, heading to his room to change. When he came back into Cindy's room, her bathroom door was still closed and she could be heard brushing her teeth. Shrugging, he headed back to the balcony.

"You almost done in there, Cindy?" he called back.

A spit and then a gurgle. "Just a minute!"

Sighing, he looked over at the Diamond Head volcanic crater in an attempt to occupy his time while he waited for Cindy. He smiled at the natural beauty of the rock formation. He was about to turn away to wait for Cindy on her bed when something caught his eye.

"Huh?" He squinted his eyes and looked past the Diamond Head crater. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. He held up his watch and activated its zoom function. A pair of holographic binoculars shot out from the watch's projective face. Holding the binoculars level with his eyes he looked past the Diamond Head crater. His other hand made some minor adjustments to the binoculars holographic dials and the image of fiery smoke rising into the air became clearer.

He frowned. "That's strange... Smoke?" He tried to zoom in closer but couldn't see much else because of the volcanic crater. "Better send up the satellite probe." He looked at his watch and moved to change the function once more to send up his latest invention, a holographic, floating surveillance camera that could give him a 360 degree view of anything within its view for over 50 kilometers. Then, he heard a voice calling him for him from back inside the suite.

"Jimmy? You coming to bed or what?"

He looked back quickly to see Cindy lying on her bed, her head supported by her hand as she lay on her side. To Jimmy's eyes, she looked like an image of the Roman goddess Venus as she looked over at him innocently, expectantly. Her silk night gown was draped scantily across her body, coming to an end just above her knee.

Jimmy smiled slightly, turning off his watch as he walked over to the bedside. 'Eh... Probably nothing...' he thought as he climbed into bed with Cindy.

* * *

**l 11°15'N 162°12'W l 50 miles below sea level l Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean l**

"Someone get me a status report!"

The control room of the General's base of operations was alive with activity. Young men in black military dress uniforms buzzed around the room, speaking with scientists in similar, gray uniforms and vice versa. The control panels of the machinery blinked and beeped and a deafening siren blared throughout the base.

"And someone turn off that damned accursed siren!"

The second request was met first, followed shortly by the second one. "Sir, enemy submarine has been sunk," reported one of the scientists as he leaned over a computer control panel. "The radar isn't picking up any survivors."

"Send out search and salvage crews to look through the wreckage. Make sure there are no survivors and get rid of any existence of that submarine." The General then turned to another scientist. "You there. Did that submarine have time to send out a distress signal?"

"Negative, General," the scientist replied, setting down his clipboard by his side.

The General nodded, pleased with the answer. "Why was it here? Do you know?"

The scientist looked at his clipboard. "From the radio chatter that helped us locate it, it appears we have just sank the USS Marlin. It was apparently on a reconnaisance mission investigating "strange, deep sea murmurs" coming from our present location," the scientist quoted.

A frown creased the General's face. "What was it's last transmission?"

"It mentioned getting strong radioactive readings, sir," the scientist replied. He straightened himself up. "Sir, your orders?"

The General paused for a moment, crossing his arms as he thought. "Did you capture an encryption code from their transmission?" The scientist nodded. "Good. Track their transmission records, find out at what time interval their transmissions were going out, and reply, say something along the lines of there being absolutely nothing going on here."

The scientist nodded. "Very good sir."

"And send out a PT boat while you're at it. Put it on an eastern bearing and in the next transmission interval... Say it ran into an undersea rock formation. It's going down. Cut it and bring the PT boat home."

The scientist nodded once more. "Very good sir. Anything else?"

"Tell Professor Meir to hurry things the Hell up. I don't know how long we can keep our operations concealed, so time is of the essence." The scientist nodded and scurried off from the control room as the atmosphere of the entire room began to calm. The military personnel began to leave the room along with a few of the support staff scientists, leaving only a handful left to monitor everything.

The General made his way towards a secret passage leading out from the control room, pressing his had on the surface of the rock walls that made up his entire base. A square section of the rock wall he had put his hand on glowed and a hydraulic hiss signaled the release of carbon dioxide gas from ventilation shafts alongside the concealed door as it slid open. He disappeared inside of it and the door slid closed behind him with no evidence of any doorway ever being there.


	3. Return to Paradise

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3**

**Return to Paradise**

**

* * *

**

The morning light shone brightly through the windows of the balcony doors in Cindy's room. Cindy groaned lightly and shrank away from the light, tucking herself deeper into the bedsheets and something else. Something... firm. She jolted slightly, looking at what she was leaning against until she saw that it wasn't a what as much as it was a who.

Thankfully, her jolt had awaken Jimmy who was still fast asleep, snoring lightly beside her. She giggled slightly at the sight of the self- and internationally-proclaimed boy genius uncharacteristically snoring lazily away at--she checked the alarm clock on her bedside counter--a quarter 'till ten in the morning. She laid her head on his chest.

Not wanting to wake him, she contented herself by listening to his heart beats. However, her mind drifted to contemplative thought about how things were now, the changes in the dynamics of their relationship.

Since when did she and Jimmy become so close? So comfortable? So intimate? How had things come so far from the elementary school days of constant bickering and fighting? Why not then? What changed?

Perhaps it was because they had grown up. That was the only feasible conclusion she could come up with, and when she thought about it, it made quite a bit of sense. Jimmy had stopped obsessing over nonsensical scientific experiments such as gathering space crystals to make ice cream and growing ancient plants and had begun to do some worthwhile scientific breakthroughs, such as last year's Nobel Prize winning plant growth acceleration formula.

That scientific break through cut down the growth time of most edible plants in half, save for squash and olives, for some reason; the formula produced enough food for 5% of the starving peoples of the world and considering that the number had recently hit one billion, that was quite an impressive feat. More importantly, there appear to be absolutely no side-effects.

So far.

In addition to that, Jimmy's obsession with science in general has matured. No longer did he exhibit a nearly Sheen-like obsession with any of several reknowned (and obscure) scientists such as Albert Einsteen or Isaac Newton. His speech had "dumbed" down, in a sense, where he no longer went off on convoluted explanations and monologues preaching the principals of science, the laws of physics, or something else that very few have heard of and none cared about.

However, in turn, Cindy for one had become less... violent wasn't the most all-inclusive of words, but it worked better than any other she could think of at the time. Her tomboyish side and her obsession in beating Jimmy both literally and figuratively had indeed simmered down a bit. True, she could still strike terror into the burliest of bikers with one roundhouse kick, and she was still constantly trying to beat Jimmy at school (a futile effort, at best), but for the most part, all of that had just died out as she grew older. That's what strong relationships were made of, she supposed; two mature people getting along.

Or maybe it was just because she no longer cared. Not about Jimmy, but about what other people thought of them. It wasn't 4th Grade anymore when her fellow classmates would chide and tease each other for who they went out with, who's dating who, and who caught who kissing. True, high school wasn't much different, but it was in some respects less childish than back in the days when cooties were considered more dangerous than the Ebola Virus.

Her early morning philosophical reverie was abruptly interrupted by a long yawn and then a groan. She looked up to see Jimmy reluctantly blinking away the stubborn hold of sleep from his eyes. She stifled a giggle with her hand as she looked up at him. "Morning," she murmured softly.

His eyes sprung open and he jolted up slightly, startled, but relaxed when he realized where he was, what was going on, and who just spoke. He smiled softly down at her as he laid his head back down on her pillow. "Morning... You sleep well?"

Cindy nodded. "Mmhmm..." She smiled tenderly back up at him. "This really does remind me of our little island in the Pacific... Remember our last night there?" He nodded, closing his eyes as his mind drifted back to that island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that, for a while at least, they called Paradise.

He remembered the strong sting of the sea breeze and the scent of the sea salt. He remembered the warmth from the camp fire and the log they had sat on. He remembered the way Cindy looked, sitting with her old green tank top and khaki shorts on top of a rock by the waterfall springs they used to swim in.

He remembered the rich, savory taste of what became her famous guava-mango smoothies (how she made them, he, to this day, had never figured out). He remembered the sweet, delicate armoa of that strange, blue, tropical flower, of a species that he had never before encountered in all of his years of devoted scientific research.

And he especially remembered the sparkle of joy and delight in her eyes when he gave her that little, shiny pearl after prying open one hundred and thirty-seven or so oysters to find the God forsaken thing.

"Yeah... I remember..." he murmured lightly as he rested his hand on her back, holding her closely to him as if afraid that both she and the memory of the island would slip away from his mind forever.

He then sighed as he remembered how suddenly and abruptly all of that had ended. "We need to think up of a plan on getting rid of Sheen and Libby long enough to enjoy that place again..."

Cindy laid her head back down on his chest and nodded slowly. "God knows I love Libby to death and Sheen can be okay on a good day, but you're right. I really want to get back to that island... The soft song of the sea on sandy shores, the setting Sun on our faces..."

She then sighed dramatically and sat up from the bed. "You think, I'ma take a shower. You should probably start getting ready too. Sheen and Libby'll be up any minute and we don't want them barging in on us like this, do we?" She tossed the last comment over her shoulder as she entered the bathroom.

Jimmy sighed and shook his head, although he offered a grunt of agreement. "That would be bad, wouldn't it?" The bathroom door closed after the last word was uttered, a wordless cue for Jimmy to leave and get ready.

Sitting up as well, he stretched, working out the kinks in his back that seemingly neverending nights of staying up in his lab working on one convoluted contraption or the other had caused. Thankfully, the soft hotel beds had helped to alleviate much of the stress on his back.

As he rubbed his back out, he glanced over to the balcony that he and Cindy had spent yesterday morning and night staring at the sky. He then remembered what he had seen that last night, the strange smoke. Only a fire of exceptional magnitude, say an explosion from an oil tanker or an airbus going down and crashing in flames, could have sent enough fire and smoke so high into the air that he could have seen it over the volcanic crater. And according to the rangefinder from his binoculars, the source was a good several hundred miles away.

He shook the image out of his mind. 'Come on, Neutron,' he reprimanded himself with Cindy's own pet name for him as he made way for his bedroom's bathroom. 'You promised Cindy that you wouldn't do anything related to work. And that looks like work if anything. You're a teenager for Einstein's sake, this sounds like something for the Coast Guard or the Navy to handle. Yeah, that's right... The Navy'll look into it...'

His hand first reached for his electric razor, a birthday gift from one of his aunt's after she had seen "what a handsome young man" he was growing up to be; four pesky little chin hairs was obviously enough to merit an electric razor as far as his aunt was concerned, but who was he to complain? Free was free and even though he probably could've built a nuclear powered razor, after a bit of thought and experimentation on a lab rat, perhaps putting something so sharp and nuclear-powered next to his face wasn't exactly a great idea, considering his heinous track record of only giant projects turning out successful and minor adjustments to convenient household items becoming miniature doomsday devces. Even he would admit, albeit in private, that his inventions had a tendency of malfunctioning and doing the worst possible damae in all realms of physical possibility and then some.

Flicking it on, he began to shave off the beginning of a morning stubble from not shaving for a good half of a week. While he shaved, his mind drifted back to the fiery smoke from last night.

'What could've been so big as to result in a yield of so much combustive gases?' he thought. For non-scientists, this of course translated as: what big thing coulda blown up to make that much smoke. 'For that much smoke and fire to be visible at this distance... A ship. A big ship. An oil tanker? Possibly, but why would an oil tanker be crossing the middle of the Pacific? Usually they would go to and from oil rich areas such as the Arctic region and go directly to a pipeline, be refined, and then packaged into barrels and then shipped... Maybe a transport ship for oil could have exploded? Hmm...'

After shaving, he decided to brush his teeth next. 'A feasible hypothesis, but...' He shook his head mentally and sighed as he put the toothbrush into his mouth and began brushing. 'Cindy's right. For once.' He smirked wryly. 'I need to relax. Just enjoy myself. Like I said before, if it's anyone's responsibility, the United States Navy will handle it. And that's if it's any of their concern in the first place. Maybe it's just a volcano. I'm thinking too much and for once, it's not a good thing.'

With that, he brushed the thought aside and finished brushing his teeth. After spitting and rinsing his mouth, he slapped some cold water onto his face to wake himself up a bit more and wiped it off with a hotel towel. He then stepped back into his room.

He then changed into a pair of blue jeans and a white T-shirt. Although he didn't consider himself it, his style of fashion had become considerably more "country" as some people put it. This was probably because of his slight affinity towards Western apparel as opposed to the ripped jeans, smart-aleck T-shirts, and expensive slip-on shoes that his fellow students seemed to favor, he still kept a bit of his classic childhood look with him. For example, though he did indeed wear a Texas-style belt buckle with his Wranglers, there was no "Don't Mess With Texas" slogan, hunting or fishing logo, or a Lone Star symbol on it. Instead, there was his signature atomic structure symbol, displayed proudly for all to see.

And by no means did he wear a cowboy hat, drive a pick-up truck, or shoot a double-barreled shotgun or a six-shooter. The only true things that were country were his jeans, his belt buckle, and the brown, leather roper cowboy boots that his Uncle Marcus, a rancher from West Texas, had bought for him as a Christmas gift during his Freshman year. They had since still fit and he had to admit that they not only looked pretty stylish but were also very durable and slip-resistant due to the grips on the soles of the footwear, making them ideal for lab work.

After he was done changing, he walked out into the living room where he discovered that he was the first to be done with his morning rituals. Lying down on the couch, he reached for the remote control and turned on the plasma screen TV in an effort to distract himself from thinking about what he had seen the night before. After changing the channel from the hotel's default, introductory channel, he found himself tuned into CNN.

A suit-wearing man in his early 50's appeared on-screen with the words "The Situation Room" appearing on the scroller beneath her. Apparently, he was in the middle of a conversation about climate change, if the picture and his words were any indicator. "-will be held throughout the rest of this month. The President is planned to make a speech at the U.N. Climate Summit sometime this weekend and will be speaking with the Chinese and Russian Premeirs at some point as well."

The picture then changed to that of a submarine that had smoke and fire leaping from her portside. Jimmy leaned in closer, more attentive now than ever.

"Back to our top story of the hour and for the past several hours, United States Naval authorities are still investigating the loss of the USS Marlin, a reconnaisance submarine. If you are just now tuning in, about eight hours ago, the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor received an SOS distress call from the USS Marlin who claims to have struck an underwater rock formation."

The man cleared his throat before continuing. "Authorities are currently baffled as they attempt to triangulate the site of the wreckage in an attempt to retrieve the bodies of the crew men, with no success. However, given the depth that a ship would have to be to have an underwater collision with a rock formation, authorities have stated that the chances of survival are non-existent."

Jimmy frowned. "So that's what it was..." he murmured to himself. He then blinked and his frown deepened, as did the thought lines on his forehead. "Eight hours ago for me would've been midnight... That's about when me and Cindy had turned in... When I saw it... The time frame's right, the size of the vessel sounds about right... But at a depth low enough for it to crash with a rock formation, there's no way that it could have been the source of that smoke I saw... Could it?

He rubbed his chin in deep thought. "This is bad," he muttered to himself. "This could be really bad. None of what the news says and what I saw makes any sense. The data doesn't correspond with each other at all and there is no correlative relationship of anykind!"

He stamped his fist into his open palm. "I need to do something. I need to contact Goddard, no I need to call the Pentagon, or better yet, first call the US Na-"

"JAMES ISAAC NEUTRON! What did I tell you about working during our vacation?!"

He jumped and hurriedly turned the TV off as he spun around, startled. He calmed slightly when he saw that it was Cindy. He then grew nervous again. "Uh, um, Cindy! Hi! Uh... How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know that I got out of the shower just in time to stop you from sending us on another wild goose chase that'll burn up all our vacation time." Cindy, standing in a bathrobe with her hair tied up in a towel, crossed her arms and glared at Jimmy in bemusement. "Remember last year's spectacle by any chance, Nerdtron?"

Last year, Jimmy had spent a good chunk of the gang's Summer Break investigating what he thought were alien crash sites around Retroville. It turned out that a recent meteor shower had run into a few broken, long-forgotten satellites and the results of the collisions had sprinkled across Southern United States.

Jimmy nodded and Cindy let out an aggravated sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "You promised, Neutron!" she muttered accusingly, continuing to send a menacing glare of death towards Jimmy. "You promised me: No working during the vacation!"

However, the glare did not faze the boy genius one bit. "But Cindy, this time, I think I might be onto something," he protested, standing up slightly, one knee on the couch cushion as he looked back towards her. "My hypothesis that something like a big ship just exploded or something would've been confirmed by the news, but too many things just don't add up."

"Think about it," he continued. "If it really was a submarine, to have hit a rock formation, it would be too low to have been the source of all the smoke and fire I saw last night. And that's assuming that all of the submarine's sensors, radars, or whatever were all broken and it couldn't see the rock formation in the first place. It just doesn't add up, Cindy, it-"

"It's the Navy's business," she stated flatly through gritted teeth, making Jimmy jump back a tiny bit. "It's the business of the United States Navy. If some rogue government is playing games with us, then who cares? It's the military's problem, not ours. We're just high school students, for crying out loud! I'm sure they've got their fair share of intelligent people that, together, will come up with any conclusion that you can come up with without us sacrificing our vacation!" By the time she was finished, she was nearly screaming.

Jimmy sighed and nodded. She had a point, he had to admit, and even if he wanted to help, who would believe him anyways? He felt Cindy sit down on the couch beside him, the anger rolling off in waves off of her slender form. He also felt something else, however. Behind the present anger, there was frustration, disappointment, and... Sadness? Time seemed to slow as Jimmy analyzed this last thought.

He glanced over at Cindy who sat beside him with her arms crossed stubbornly across her chest. While her body language clearly stated intense fury and a barely controllable impulse to rip his head off, her face told a different story. Her mouth was drawn taut across her face and her lips were pursed tightly against each other, as if she was trying to hold something back. Her eyes burned holes off into space at nothing in particular. It was then that he realized that he really must've pissed her off.

Guilt building up on his conscience, he sighed. Then, fighting back his fear of having his arm ripped off by her, he pulled her into a hug, catching her off guard. "I'm sorry..." he muttered.

She was silent for a moment before relaxing in his arms. "You better be..." she muttered back, her threat more than a little half-hearted. "You promised..." She leaned in closer to his embrace.

"I know, I know..." He sighed again for the upteenth time that morning, resting his head on top of hers. "It's just not something I used to doing, okay? Just sitting back and letting other people solve things..."

He received a wry look from her. "Maybe you should. You'd live longer."

Jimmy laughed slightly. "Was that a suggestion to step back from the jaws of danger and adventure or a death threat?"

"Both." There was no half-heartedness in that single word.

His laughter quieted abruptly at that. "So... what's the plan for today, then, since we're not going to partake in the Mysterious Case of the Missing Submarine?"

She shrugged. "How about we go bother Sheen and Libby for once?"

"Sounds like a plan. But, uh... Why don't you get dressed first?"

A blush. "... Good idea."

* * *

Breakfast was much more jovial than it had been the day before. Jimmy and Cindy sat on one side of the group's table while Sheen and Libby sat on the other. There were no secretive, gossipy whispers, no annoying pet names, no severe bodily harm, and only a slight bit of teasing from Cindy because of what she and Jimmy had seen when they went to wake Sheen and Libby that morning.

Apparently, Jimmy and Cindy weren't the only ones to have become more and more intimate. Although Jimmy was more than a little grossed out from what he had seen, Cindy hadn't let up one bit on her teasing of Libby and Sheen making out on the couch in their suite's living room. Mainly because it was then that she discovered that Libby didn't mind Ultralord as much as she had let on as was evidenced by a pair of Ultralord pajamas Sheen had undoubtedly gotten for her for Christmas one year.

So now, whenever Cindy giggled and glanced over at Libby, the other girl simply gave her a slightly bemused glanced and a playful kick to the shin from under the table. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Sheen were once again engaged in fierce competition, this morning's breakfast food of choice being bacon.

Taking a break from teasing Libby, Cindy addressed the entire table. "So what's the plan for today?"

Libby shrugged. "I was thinkin' of headin' into the town, you know, shop around a bit. Honolulu must have some great malls!"

Cindy barely controlled herself from laughing at the pleading looks of dismay and fear on the boys' faces. While shopping did sound like good fun for her, not because of what she could buy with Jimmy's money but just out of the sheer joy in forcing Jimmy and Sheen to go shopping with them, she decided to turn Libby down.

Maybe later, Libs. I was thinking of going out to the ocean again. I've always wanted to go wind-gliding."

Gears suddenly clicked in Libby's mind and she remembered Jimmy and Cindy's conversation from the plane. 'Ohhh, so my girl wants to get some alone time with her man, huh? That's cool, I can dig it. I wouldn't mind being left alone with Sheen for a little while too.'

After last night's date with Sheen, Libby was reminded of the boyish charm that Sheen possessed that she was so attracted to in the first place. Sure, he was more than a little off and his Ultralord obsession was more than a little annoying, but it was the innocent nature of his humor that made her love him in the first place.

Libby then glanced over at Sheen who was now attempting to dislodge of a piece of bacon from his throat. Patting his back firmly, she helped him in dislodging it. She sighed mentally. '... Girl, you gonna owe me big time.'

She then looked over at her childhood best friend and smiled. "Uh, hey Cin? Can I have a word with you over there for a moment? In private." She pointed over to the lady's room. Cindy gave her a perplexed look, glancing over at a distracted Jimmy, and then nodded.

The two young women walked over to the women's bathroom, Libby leading the way. Once they got inside, Cindy looked at Libby. "What's up?" the blonde teenager asked, leaning against the sink.

"I know what you're up to and it's fine with me," Libby stated bluntly, much to Cindy's utter confusion. "I think it's really great that you and Jimmy are actually making an effort to get along nowadays. It's a lot more... peaceful, for practically everyone."

"What are you talking about?" Cindy asked, now even more confused than before.

"Duh, that little island of yours from back when we were kids?"

Cindy frowned, scratching her head slightly. "Wait, how did you-"

"Well," Libby said, laughing slightly, "me, Carl, and Sheen rescued you guys, if you don't remember. And for another thing, I overheard you two talking on the plane ride over here."

Realization now dawning her, Cindy smiled and pulled Libby into a friendly hug. "Thanks, Libs... You don't know how much this means to me. I mean, I like hanging out with you, it's just that-"

"You want some quality alone time with Jimmy?" Libby stated. Cindy nodded, feeling slightly guilty. "It's fine, girl! What're friends for? And besides, no offense, but I'd like to be able to hang out with Sheen with either of you two hangin' around." The two of them both shared another laugh.

"Same goes for me. At least then I don't have to worry about Sheen barging in on us anymore." The laughter doubled. Eventually, it simpered back down to small giggling fits.

"So how long will y'all be gone?" Libby asked her best friend.

"Not that long, I don't think," she confessed. "Probably two to three days at the most. I mean the island was nice, but I did start to miss my soft bed and not smelling like fish and sea salt after a while."

Libby nodded. "Alright, I'll tell Sheen what's up while you and Jimmy pack."

With that, the two returned to the table to find the boys struggling to cram the last piece of bacon into their respective mouths. They both sighed in exasperation at the sight before Cindy grabbed the last piece of herself which was met with lazy complaints. Wiping her hand and mouth off with a napkin, Cindy leaned towards Jimmy to whisper into his ear.

"Come on, let's get packed."

Jimmy gave her a confused look. "Spring Break over already?" he asked rhetorically.

Cindy shook her head. "No, dummy. Libby caught onto our plan and gave us the go ahead. Paradise Island, here we come."

After understanding what the two had probably just talked about, Jimmy smiled brightly at both the new plan as well as Cindy's new nickname for their island. "What are we doing waiting around here, then?" Getting up from the table, he grabbed Cindy's hand, illiciting a blush from the blonde teen, and led her back to their hotel suite to pack.

Meanwhile, Libby looked over at Sheen. "You ever miss those days when all those two did was fight?"

The Mexican teenager simply nodded. "Somehow, this new and open display of affection is a bit nauseating," he stated sagely. He then let out a large burp, much to Libby's chargin. "'Scuse me..."

On the way out of the hotel's restaurant, Cindy stopped abruptly. "Jimmy, wait."

He looked back, cocking an eyebrow quizically at her. "What is it, Cindy?"

She simply giggled. "What do we need to pack, really? Just some swim wear, maybe, and maybe some giant spider spray, but other than that we can survive off the island like we did before!" Realization dawned on Jimmy as well and he joined her in her laughter.

"You know what, you're right, Cindy. Look, you go pack whatever you think we'll need and meet me down in the lobby. Oh, and bring my hypercube along with us, just in case. It should be in my suitcase. While you do that, I'm gonna call whoever's in charge of the Wheeler Army Airfield and ask them to prep the new hovercar prototype for a, uh... prolonged test drive."

"Great, I can't wait to drive it!" Cindy said happily as she and Jimmy began to walk towards the exit again.

Jimmy nodded and smiled along before he paused abruptly just as Cindy had moments ago. "Wait, you drive?"

Cindy turned around and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm driving this time," she said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms as she looked at him defiantly.

"Oh no, no, no," Jimmy insisted, waving his hands in front of him as he spoke to emphasize those three monosyllabic words. "There's no way I'm letting you drive."

"What do you mean by that, Neutron?"

"Exactly what you think it means. Last time I let you drive the hovercar, you nearly crashed us into the side of Mount Everest."

"Oh will you let that go? It was one time, one frickin' time, and it was snowing pretty hard then!"

"It was not! I could've flown through that snowstorm easily, oh wait, I did! That's why we're still alive and not human ice cubes somewhere in the Himilayan mountains right now."

"Oh blah blah blah. Listen to me, I'm James Isaac NERDtron, I'm a big know-it-all show off. Give it a break, will ya?"

"You give it a break, Vortex. And for the record, I can't help but come off as a know-it-all when I do, in fact, know it all."

Sheen and Libby sighed in unison. "Guess we spoke too soon," Libby muttered as she snatched a piece of bacon off of Sheen's plate.

* * *

Their little arguement burned up the better half of an hour, but eventully, it ended in the usual fashion, this time with Cindy tripping on her way down the hotel steps and Jimmy catching her in his arms, followed by the usual blushing, stammering, and nervous head scratching. The two teenagers then took a taxi cab to the Wheeler Army Airfield Base just outside of Honolulu.

They were stopped by two MPs. "Halt!" one commanded as he held out his hand, his rifle held in his other hand while his partner stalked up behind him to provide support. "This is a restricted area. What is your business here?"

"My name is James Isaac Neutron," Jimmy stated, drawing his name out with its usual air of arrogance, much to Cindy's disdain as she rolled her eyes. "I'm here to give my prototype hovercar a bit of a test drive."

The MP looked at him skeptically. "Just what do you think you're trying to pull, kid?"

The other MP walked up to the first one, however, and whispered, "Sergeant Plath, sir, I think this is the guy General Maldeves told us to look out for."

Sergeant Plath paused for a moment and nodded. "Contact the General and run the name," he whispered back to the other MP. The MP nodded and returned to the security booth. Plath then addressed Jimmy again. "Can I see some identification, sir?"

Jimmy nodded, knowing this was simply routine inspection, and reached into his wallet to pull out his driver's license. Sergeant Plath looked between the license and Jimmy's face intently, checking for any indiscrepancies. Soon, the other MP approached. "Sir," the MP started, "name checks out. General Maldeves wants us to escort Mr. Neutron and anyone accompanying him to Hanger 7 ASAP."

Plath nodded tersely and handed Jimmy back his license. "My apologies for the inconvenience, Mr. Neutron." He saluted sharply, the other MP doing the same. It took Jimmy a moment before he realized he was supposed to return the salute. After wards, Plath continued. "Standard operating procedures. I wouldn't be doing my job if I hadn't have checked. If you would, sir, please follow Corporal Keller here to Hanger 7."

Corporal Keller, the other MP that had been speaking to Plath, stepped up at the mention of his name. "This way please, sir." He gestured for them to follow and led them towards the security gate. "Open the gates!" he bellowed and the chainlink fence slid out of their way as the enlisted serviceman and the two teenagers walked into the bustling military outpost.

Cargo trucks and Army jeeps wheeled past the trio as they walked alongside a runway on the western most side of the base. "So, Jimmy," Cindy said as they headed towards Hanger 7, "what's so special about this new hovercar?"

"A lot of things, actually," Jimmy said pridefully. "I'm glad you asked. Well, one of the biggest things about this hovercar is its versatility."

"Versatility, what do you mean?" They began to near a series of large hangers and, upon further inspection of their surroundings, Jimmy and Cindy both noticed that the hangers were divided by number, with odd numbered hangers on the side they were walking along and the even numbered hangers across from them on the other side of the tarmac.

As they passed Hanger 1, Jimmy answered her question. "I mean that not only is it able to travel at faster speeds across land, it is capable of high-altitude travel as well as undersea travel at depths up to at least two hundred nautical miles below sea level."

"I see," Cindy murmured as they passed Hanger 3 and came up on Hanger 5. "So now it's, what, flying car/submarine hybrid?"

"Something like that, I'll explain more when we actually see it."

Soon, they arrived at hanger 7 and to Jimmy's delight, there sat his latest hovercar. He then turned to Cindy and announced dramatically, with closed eyes, "Ladies and gentlemen-" He then realized that his entire audience comprised of Cindy, the corporal having returned to his post after escorting his charges. "He cleared his throat. "Er, just Cindy then, I guess. Allow me to introduce to you the Hovercar Mark II... I, haven't quite settled on a name yet..."

Cindy looked over the new hovercar as it sat just outside of the hanger bay. Unlike his old hovercar, which looked like an oversized inner tube with levitational capabilities, the Hovercar Mark II was something akin to The Jetfolk or Space Wars. The vehicle was shaped like an arrowhead, pointed at the nose and broad at the end, possibly for aerodynamic reasons. The vehicle levitated despite no one operating it. At his female companion's gawks and stares, Jimmy laughed. "Let me give you a quick overview," he said, bringing up his best car salesman pitch.

"The Mark II's exterior is composed of sand from the Moon which has been galvanized and reinforced with iridium, silver, antimony, and some special metalloid mixtures of existing elements that I had to make from scratch to compensate for any flaws." He approached the sleek, onyx black sheen of the hovercar's exterior. He knocked on it and it gave a resounding ring. "It is hard yet malleable, can withstand temperatures up to two thousand Kelvin on either end of the thermometer, and, and this is my personal favorite..." He took out a pair of car keys from his pocket and quickly ran it across the surface. "Completely scratch resistant." He waved his hand across the surface as if doing a magic trick and lo and behold, there was not a dent on the vehicle.

Jimmy then moved to the top part of the hovercar. Unlike his first hovercar, there was no open-air style opening. Instead, a car-like hardtop roof encased the interior of the hovercar. There were, like a car, front, side, and rear windshields with a roof composed of the same material as the rest of the exterior. Jimmy knocked on the glass windshields at the front.

"This is what I call Neutronian Impervi-Glass," he boasted pridefully. "So named because it is capable of withstanding up to twenty-five thousand pounds of atmospheric pressure. I used some of the same techniques that I did with the exterior to make it so strong, meaning it can be strong without breaking and it can bend without losing its shape. As an added bonus, once the vehicle is engaged, it is completely airtight. I went without a lot of sleep until I perfected it, but I finally emulated the osmosis properties of cell membranes into artificial contructs. Whether we're in a river of lava or ten thousand leagues under the sea, nothing can possibly get in. To compensate for oxygen, however, I installed some of the same air filters from that old submarine I had back when we were in elementary school. The air may become stale after five minutes, but anyone inside can survive for, well, however long they want without fear of aspyxiation."

He then cleard his throat. "Vox: Open Hatch." The roof of the hovercar hissed and it opened from the front.

Jimmy motioned for Cindy to climb into the hovercar with him. As she did so, she asked him, "Wait, you installed Vox into here too?"

"Well, not exactly Vox," he explained, "but her 'younger sister' if you can call it that. Cindy, meet Vox 2.0, the latest in artificial intelligence." For the next several minutes, Jimmy went on and on about the standards of the interior. In a nutshell, there was seating for eight, enough cupholders for ten, a AM/FM radio, a 6-disc CD player, a surround-sound speaker system, and of course air and barf bags. Ending that, he soon moved onto software which ran along the same lines, culiminating to an improved, voice-activated auto-pilot, GPS emergency beacon, adaptive camoflauge, and an advanced weapons system platform that included twin .50 caliber machine guns underneath the "nose" of the hovercraft, torpedo/bomb capacity of twelve, and of course a self-destruct function.

"Alright, I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I'm impressed," Cindy conceded. "But why so... high-tech this time? And why the extra emphasis on defense and why so many weapons?"

"Well, this is a military project," Jimmy reminded her. "After I work out all and any bugs on the simulator at home and after the Joint Chiefs of Staff give my baby a final review, it will hopefully be commissioned for American special ops units like the Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Green Berets, and Delta Force. Some of this extra stuff, though, I just added because I felt like it. I know that it won't make it the final cut, but if the military wants me to test drive it, might as well put some things that I'm gonna enjoy in there while I'm doing it."

Cindy smiled, both because the tour was finally over and that Jimmy was, for once, making worthwhile contributions to society, even though this was a weapon of death and destruction. At least it wasn't a new bomb or some God awful biochemical weapon.

"So when do we get going?" she asked, settling in the co-pilot's seat after throwing their things into the back seats. "In case you hadn't noticed, your little tour took up the better half of an hour and I'd like to head out before it gets too dark."

Jimmy nodded as he strapped himself into the pilot's seat, his so-called Captain's Chair, and turned on the engine. Instead of a powerful roar of the engine and the tremble of its vibrations capable of being felt beneath their feet, the Mark II offered a sudden flash of power as the underside glowed an iridescent whitish-blue glow. The light then dimmed considerably until it was barely noticeable and the engine went silent. However, the lights on the dashboard indicated to the both of them that the vehicle was indeed on.

The cockpit hatch began to close but Jimmy stopped it with a press of a button. At Cindy's inquiring look, he explained, "I thought we'd feel the wind through our hair for a bit. After all, it's been a while since our last trans-Pacific flight in a hovercar." Cindy nodded approvingly and Jimmy pulled back on the steering yokes, which were more similar to a jet fighter's this time around, both in functionality and design. The hovercar rose high above the tarmac and with a couple more button presses and a throttle push, the hovercar shot off towards the horizon, leaving bewildered servicemen watching in confusion before quickly returning back to work.

* * *

"Well, Neutron, I gotta hand it to ya... You've really outdone yourself this time," Cindy complimented as she leaned back in her chair. She and Jimmy had flown around for about a good three hours and floated aimlessly along for another two. After the three hours of flight, Jimmy had decided to touch the hovercar down into the water to test out its functionability as a seafaring vessel.

In short, it received 5-Stars in Cindy's book. The tides seemed to simply glance off of it, the hovercar just barely rocking at even the strongest of waves, undoubtedly because of some type of stabilizational effect of the anti-gravitational field that allowed the hovercraft to float.

Jimmy smiled as he yanked on the steering yokes and brought the hovercraft around to face the West. "I'm not done yet," he replied as the Sun soon came into view. The giant ball of burning hydrogen known as the Sun was on the last leg of its intergalactic lap of the day and was close to setting.

Cindy smiled. "What, are we going to see every single phase of the Sun before break's over?" she joked as she sat up and brought their seats closer before leaning onto Jimmy's shoulder.

The young man simply smiled, fighting off a slight blush. "Well, not every phase," he corrected. "I'm pretty sure high noon's nothing much to look at."

The blonde teenager rolled her eyes and slugged Jimmy playfully in the arm. "Oh can you not be so technical and just shut up for once?"

Jimmy simply chuckled and put his arm around her shoulders. "As you wish," he said in a jokingly mocking tone. They sat in comfortable silence as the Sun began the last of its daily rituals, slowly dipping below horizon, where infinite ocean met infinite sky, a deeper blue melding with a slowly receding red-orange hue cast off from the setting Sun.

Finally, the Sun disappeared from view and darkness replaced light. They continued to sit, not a word spoken between the two, as stars filled the night sky, creeping out of the newly borne night like nocturnal animals. Meanwhile, the Moon replaced the Sun, another full moon that night, and its light illuminated the sea and cast a pale, soft glow across the calm waters.

"Jimmy..." Cindy said softly, finally breaking the tender silence. "This has to be our best vacation ever... After this, I don't even think those days on the island could top this entire week..."

Jimmy chuckled and sat up a bit, much to Cindy's disapproval. "What are you doing?" she asked him as he rummaged through their luggage in the back.l

"Well, I'd rather not be stuck behind the wheel for the next few hours staring at utter darkness with nothing but moonlight and water that goes on and on forever with no change in sight." He soon pulled out his hypercube. Sitting back in his seat, he shoved his hand into the hypercube and continued. "So, I thought that we could just sit back, enjoy a movie, and then sleep in the back while the Mark II sails its way on autopilot to our island. By the time morning comes around, we should be there."

Cindy smiled. "Sounds like a great idea. What's the movie?"

"Well, let me find the stupid DVD player first," Jimmy muttered as he shoved his arm even deeper into the hypercube. "It's gotta be around here somewhere..." He gritted his teeth in concentration before smiling broadly. "Hah! Gotcha!" He rertracted his arm and pulled out a portable DVD player with his Neutronian symbol on the cover. Opening it up, he set it on Cindy's lap. "I have a collective archive of about fifteen thousand movies on there. Take your pick while I punch in the coordinates."

Cindy nodded and began to tinker around with the DVD player's movie menu. "How's this one?"

Jimmy didn't bother looking. "Doesn't matter, just pick one," he said absentmindedly as he punched in the coordinates for their island. "There we go." He turned on the autopilot and scooted over next to Cindy to watch the movie. The autopilot soon beeped affirmatively and the hovercar began to move across the water, their destination displaying on an LCD screen.

The autopilot's LCD screen read:

**Paradise Island**

**11°15'N  
162°12'W**

**

* * *

**

Alright, some things I should say. I want to thank all (two) of my faithful reviewers up this point. I'm a new writer, bored and trying to fill the void that my departed cousin left on this site. I'd try and finish his old story, but I have no idea what his password is. In anycase, any reviews, comments, and suggestions would be much appreciated.


	4. Calm Before the Storm

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 4**

**Calm Before the Storm**

* * *

**l 11°15'N 162°12'W l "Paradise Island" l**

"Maintain a steady bearing for two miles and you will have reached your destination," a female, robotic voice chirped.

The sound suddenly jerked Jimmy out of his fitful slumber. He groaned as he struggled to open his eyes, quickly squeezing them shut again as the sudden intrustion of the morning light was too much for him. After a moment, he slowly opened his eyes again, his deep, blue eyes refocusing. It was then that he soon realized where he was.

He then felt a heavy weight on his chest. Looking down, he saw Cindy lying her hands and head on his chest, still sleeping very peacefully. A soft smile graced his face when he saw the angelic look of innocent bliss on her clear porcelain white face. Boldly, he lifted his hand to caress one cheek with his bare knuckles, admiring the softness of her skin. He paused when her nose crinkled slightly in agitation. Soon, she went still again. Spotting a loose thread of silky, golden hair, his hand brushed it back behind her ear to join the rest of her heavenly yellow tresses which lay in a mess across her back and neck. Nearby, he could see her green hair scrunchie lying off to the side.

Looking around a bit more, he remembered what had happened the night before. After watching the movie, they decided to star gaze for a bit. To make things easier, Jimmy showed Cindy how to make the front row of seats lie completely flat in somewhat a sleeping position, and he then opened the canopy of the hovercraft. After a slight arguement on which constellation was which, they settled for resting peacefully and staring up at the night sky which, although they were moving, held a stoic presence overhead.

The night passed quickly by and they agreed to turn in for the night. Given that there were no sleeping quarters aboard his hovercraft, they slept together and shared one of the emergency blankets, not that either of them minded at all. However, before turning to bed, Jimmy closed the cockpit once more and ordered the hovercraft to submerge until they have reached the island and activated the radar jammer. He didn't want to be stopped by any foreign patrol ships. Having to explain that he was taking his girlfriend out to a private island paradise in a top-secret military hovercraft he had designed probably wouldn't go over very well...

Now that his mind had recollected everything he slowly sat up, lifting Cindy's head to rest on the prone seat's head rest. He broke out into a broad smile when he saw the rapidly approaching land mass before them. A large mountain rose high above the canopies of the dense tropical rainforest that encompassed the entire island save for its shores. He smiled as he remembered the waterfall at the base of the mountain where he and Cindy swam.

As the hovercar continued on its way towards the island, he opened the canopy and breathed in the fresh morning air, mingled in with the salty scent of the sea. He then knelt down by Cindy's sleeping form. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he shook her lightly and whispered, "Cindy? Cindy, wake up."

He only had so much time to draw his head back from her arm's reach as Cindy struck her arm out to sock him across the face. After several years of knowing each other, Jimmy had long learned his lesson that Cynthia Aurora Vortex did not like to be waken up and that if you are the unfortunate soul tasked with doing so, do so while at least one arm's length away because she had a slight tendency of sending whoever was trying to wake her up into Sleepy Town. The chances of this reaction were 50/50, but considering Cindy's vivious right hook, it was better safe than sorry.

While Cindy slowly gained awareness of her surroundings, Jimmy rubbed his chin where Cindy's fist had just barely connected with his face. "Ow... I actually think I'm getting better. You just barely knicked me this time," he muttered.

Cindy's hazel eyes snapped over to him and her jaw dropped. Shame and guilt welled up inside of her as she grabbed Jimmy's chin. "Oh my God, Jimmy, are you alright?" She began to babble out incoherent apologies. "Jimmy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it!"

Jimmy pulled away, shaking his hands dismissively. "Don't worry about, Cindy. In retrospect, I should've probably bound your hands together before I woke you up."

Still, Cindy continued to look apologetically at him. She then smiled sheepishly. "Well, I know how I can make it better..." She leaned over and kissed his chin. "All better?" she asked teasingly.

The boy genius blushed slightly and looked away. He began to stammer slightly. "Uh, much better, well, not really, technically, considering there was no medical treatment involved, but I guess you can rule it as a type of placebo effect." He abruptly changed the subject. Putting his hand on Cindy's shoulder, he pointed over to the island. "Look, land!"

Cindy gasped and clasped her hands together. "We're here?" She smiled and stood up, feeling the ocean breeze on her skin. "We're here!" she shouted excitedly. She leaned over the side of the hovercar. With one hand in the cool saltwater and the other hand gripping tightly to the edge of the hovercar, she began to paddle towards the island in exuberant, jovial enthusiasm.

Jimmy laughed heartily and knelt by his side of the hovercar and did the same. The island's sandy beaches soon graced both of their fingertips as the hovercar smashed lightly into the pale yellow sand. Turning off the antigrav systems and all other functions of the hovercar, Jimmy jumped over the sides of the hovercar and Cindy soon joined him.

They laughed happily and freely as if an imaginary weight suddenly ascended from their shoulders. They ran across the sands together and Jimmy glanced over at Cindy, smiling as he watched her run beside him. She smiled back and squeaked in surprised as he turned abruptly in her path and wrapped his arms around her waist, picking her up and spinning her around.

Laughter continued to fill the air until they both caught site of the wreckage of their former treehouses. The jovial spirit suddenly disappeared, replaced with a slightly more solemn silence. Jimmy then chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

"We have a lot of cleaning up to do..."

As the two teens ran off to sort through the long-forgotten, splintered ruins of the treehouses that had once been called home the last time they were on their island, a small hermit crab scuttled unnoticed across the sand, looking forlornly at them from underneath its improvised shelter. The crab then turned to look over to the strange machine that had brought the two to its habitat before turning its attention back towards the foreign beings.

The crab then let out a series of high-pitch screeches that was inaudible to human ears as an antennae protruded from the back of the hermit crab's shell. Its eyes flashed with an unnatural, shiny glint as digital coding scanned across it. The "crab" then resumed its former, natural appearance and scuttled closer to the pair to better monitor their activities.

* * *

**l 11°15'N 162°12'W l "Paradise Island" l 50 miles below sea level l**

Steel-toed boots clanked along the catwalks hanging above the control room. His one good eye squinted in deep concentration as it scanned across the room, monitoring its occupants activities. His hands were clasped behind his back as the General headed towards the stairs leading back down to the gang plank, walking past a crew of construction workers that were working on expanding the control room's second floor which, at this point, was non-existent.

As he walked down the stairs, a voice called out to him. "General, sir!" The steel-haired man in question looked sharply to the young man who had called to him who shivered involuntarily in response.

Suppressing a smile at the reaction, the General bared his teeth slightly. "What is it?" he bit out, illiciting another fearful shudder from the man, a scientist by his uniform, one of many who were tasked with monitoring all systems of the subterranean base, including security and surveillance.

The scientist swallowed nervously as he saluted shakily. "Sir, one of our surveillance probes picked up two intruders on the island."

The General frowned as his right fist clenched. "Impossible. How did they get past our radar scanners?"

Shrinking back from the interrogation, the scientist then answered, "We're not sure, sir. Our surveillance probe has even made visual contact with their transport, something I've never seen before, might I add, and we've concentrated our radar scans entirely on that area of the beach where they are... Nothing, sir... Whatever it is... A strange boat I guess you can call it... It's not coming up on our sensor arrays..."

Pausing momentarily, the General calmed down for a moment. "Bring it up on the main screen," he ordered and soon, fingers flew across keyboards as a large, LCD screen descended from the rocky ceiling and before the General's eyes. The surveillance footage that their spy probes, cleverly disguised and camoflauged as one of several inconspicuous plants and creatures native to the island, came on screen.

The General's exression never changed as he watched the footage, starting from the second the... whatever it was made contact with the beach. However, he was just barely able to contain his surprise when he saw that instead of a team of SOCOM operatives or Navy SEALs or any other special military task forces storming from a rubber raft to take out their operation, he saw two young kids, teenagers, one a blonde girl and the other a brown-haired boy, jump onto the sand and proceed to dance, spin around, and now rummage through the wreckage of some old buildings that his men had found when they had first come to the island. Out of fear that they island may be inhabited or that the wreckage be booby-trapped, he had ordered his men to leave the ruins alone.

His iron gaze then swung back around to the young scientist who had brought this to his attention. "Can you explain to me in your own words, son, what exactly I'm looking at?"

The scientist swallowed nervously once more. "Uh, um... From the looks of it sir, it seems as if these two individuals, both in either their late adolescent years to their early 20s, are-"

"In your own words," the General repeated tersely. "I don't want any of that scientific mumbo-jumbo."

Nodding quickly, the scientist blurted out, "Sir... It looks like two kids, probably a couple or something, are just messing around on a deserted island..."

"That's what I thought too," the General then said, nodding slowly. "Glad to see I'm not going crazy. Now, do a scan on that strange ship of theirs."

"Sir," the young man started, "we've done numerous scans on it. It's just not showing up on the radar at all."

"Hmm..." The frown on the older man's countenance deepened into a scowl. "Bring the surveillance probe around. I want a good look at that... thing."

"Yes sir," the scientist said before turning to his work station. He then shouted aloud to the entire room, "Bringing Sector Probe Bravo Seven Eight One Five Dash Bravo Sierra to bearing-"

"Just bring that damn spy crab around to look at the fucking ship!" the General bellowed across the room, grabbing the back of the scientist's chair as he screamed into his ear. The scientist wimpered slightly as he worked in silence, finally sending the orders along to the probe. On the main screen, the image changed as the spy camera, disguised as a hermit crab, scuttled over to inspect the ship.

Looking over at a more senior member of the control room floor team, the General asked, "What do you make of it?"

After a moment's silent contemplation, the more senior scientist finally answered, "It's... nothing I've ever seen before... From the looks of it, that vessel is armed. There are a pair of machine guns, there, at the nose, most likely .50 caliber. However... Everything else..." Crossing his arms, the scientist sighed as he thought again. "It looks like a... space ship?"

The General gave the scientist a skeptical look. "Are you trying to tell me that you think that that thing's a space ship," he asked the scientist sarcastically, squaring his shoulders in a hostile gesture as he stared him down. "Oh, and let me guess, that those kids over there are little Martians?"

Shaking his head, the scientist answered, "By all means, no sir. All I'm saying is that... The designs... The patterns... Just the entire look, it's nothing like any world military power had ever possessed before. Even the look of the exterior, it's just too... I can't even think of a proper word to describe, it's just too shiny, I suppose you can say, even when it's a couple feet into the sand. It's like something out of a spy movie or, like I said, a science-fiction movie."

Gritting his teeth, the General clenched his fist before relaxing. "I see your point." He sighed. He then looked back at the screen. "But you did say it was armed, correct?"

"Yes sir," the scientist answered. "Armed, but... Those two... They don't look like anything close to military personnel."

"Perhaps they are spies?"

"Perhaps..." the scientist reached over the control panel to pan the camera back towards the two teenagers who were proceeding on moving some of the salvageable lumber from the ruins over to a neat pile. "But say they were spies. It would be a good cover, admittedly, two teenagers, apparently deeply in love, stumbling upon a deserted island. Perfect to slip past our defenses and make us lower our guard while they snoop around. However, certain variables eliminate that idea."

He continued. "First, it's that strange vessel. Clearly, two teenagers who look as if they haven't even graduated high school yet, cannot possess such a vehicle. If they were truly undercover, something more inconspicuous, say a raft of some kind, maybe a rowboat or even a small motor boat. If they were caught, they could just tell us that they were sailing around when they found this place."

"That leads me to my second point: this island is far too remote to be some random hotspot for these two teenagers to just 'stumble upon it.' And this island is several hundred miles away from any sort of land mass in every direction. In fact, the closest chunk of earth around is another island. Any undercover attempt would be automatically nullified by the existence of that vehicle, yet these... kids, they look undercover, if that's what they are, even."

"So what are you saying then?" the General asked, crossing his arms as he looked at the scientist.

"I'm... not quite sure, General... They're definitely not spies, I can tell you that... But... they're certainly not normal..." The scientist's eyes then widened.

The change in expression didn't go unnoticed by the older man beside him. "What, what is it?" he asked as stepped towards the scientist who began to mess with the controls of the spy crab once more.

"The boy... His face... I think recognized it now..." the senior scientist muttered as he worked to bring the camera on the boys face.

"That boy? How could you possibly recongize him?"

"I'm... I'm not sure..." the scientist muttered. "Sir, I think I know who it is, but I'm afraid to say... It's not that I'm afraid, really, it's that I'm unsure and the likelihood of him being here is... Sir, I'd like to ask for Professor Meir's opinion."

"You can have it." All eyes in the room quickly looked over to the main entrance where a tall, slender-bodied man in a long, white lab coat walked through the threshold of the doorway and into the control room. Scientists and guards parted before him like the Red Sea as he approached the General and the senior floor scientist.

The most notable aspect of Herr Doktor Professor Heinrich Franz Meir, Ph.D was the way his life history impacted his apparel and how well said apparel fit into his current role. Underneath the sterile white lab coat was a military uniform of his own, one that he had worn proudly since he was a young man in 1939 and even after escaping in exile to Liberia after April of 1945.

The military uniform was stark black, as dark as the night sky and symbolizing something almost as sinister than anything that he and his friend the General had the uniform was concealed underneath the lab coat, the Iron Cross of the Third Reich hung proudly from his lab coat like the war medal it was. and the twin thunderbolts of the SS were still clipped to onto his lapel.

"I was taking a break from the lab," the man, older than any other man in the room by at least thirty years, explained. "A little birdy told me we were having a bit of a commotion upstairs on the sand," he drawled out in his light German accent. "I thought I'd be of some service."

Skipping pleasantries, the General pointed to the boy's face. "Identify that boy, Meir," he ordered, growing impatient from all the waiting.

The old professor's lips twitched into a cruel smirk. "Ah, that my totalitarian friend is Mr. James Isaac Neutron, child prodigy and winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize. Oh, and high school junior. I wonder what he is doing here..."

The identity and accolades of the boy now revealed, the General frowned. "So would we. First thing's first: Is he a problem?" Those words voiced to all in the room the man's most immediate question: Does James Neutron have to be elimnated?

"For now, nein, Herr General," Meir replied simply. "But... If he finds out about our plans... They will be ruined. A colleague of mine is currently rotting in jail along with his beautifully gorgeous daughter... Eh, her name evades my memory at the moment. Anyways, they are both in jail because of this Neutron's actions. He is a member of the BTSO, has close connections with select military leaders and scientific community big wigs, and is an inventor nearly on par with Leonardo da Vinci himself. In short, he is more than threat."

His pale, chalky lips then tightened into a cruel smirk. "But if we were to capture him and, say, that young fraulein with him... we could... coerce him into assisting us... Production is well on its way, but at this rate, it will take a couple more weeks still... It would be an honor to have the great James Neutron working with us, don't you think?"

The General then smiled with similar cruelty. "I see... Yes, it would be a great honor indeed," he replied, a devious smirk stretched across his lips.

Professor Meir turned around as he headed out of the control room. As he strode out of the room, he tossed over his shoulder, "Let them enjoy today. When they are finally let free and our plans in motion, this may be the last chance they get to see the world as they know it."

* * *

Cleaning the debris took the better half of the morning and as the Sun held its head high at noon, Jimmy and Cindy found themselves sitting by the hovercar, catching their breaths. They were tired and hungry from moving the half-rotted lumber out of the way and placing the salvageable wood into a neat stack. After all had been done, however, Jimmy was able to conclude that the good wood would be good enough to make a single hut if the same sizes and dimensions, as well as a bit of creativity on the part of materials, were used.

Rotating his shoulder to get the kinks out, Jimmy looked over at Cindy."Why don't we head over to that old waterfall of ours?" he suggested. "For one, we haven't seen it yet, and for another thing, we can get a chance to catch our breaths and maybe gather up some lunch."

"Sounds like a good as plan as anything," Cindy panted exhaustedly as she jumped out of the hovercraft, Jimmy taking a moment to first retrieve his self-containing ionized plasma blade, better known as his plasma sword.

He stepped in front of Cindy and ignited the weapon, a meter-long beam of concentrated, super-heated blue plasma igniting from the hilt. Twisting a dial on the hilt, he shortened the blade to just a little over a foot and a half, closer to the size of a machete now. He then began to hack their way through the dense jungle and down the path he remembered led to the waterfall.

As he led the way, Cindy couldn't help but admire the powerful back muscles that contracted before her with every swing of the shortened plasma sword. She knew that Jimmy had gotten more muscular in frame due to working more strenuously in the lab, especially when working on the hovercar prototype where a bit more muscle than usual was required to get every bolt tightened. Although he could have easily used one of his inventions, a machine or a drill of some sort, to do the job for him, Jimmy had told her himself that he enjoyed the tedious actions required and the time displaced by the simple twisting of a socket wrench.

It wasn't the first time Cindy had seen Jimmy without his shirt before, though, given that she had seen him yesterday at the beach. But only today could she truly focus without having to feel self-conscious of herself or feel as if nosy eyes were peering over at them, although she still slightly felt that sense right now.

Now, she was free to enjoy the sight of her slightly tanned crush hacking away at offending jungle foliage in only a pair of black swim shorts that he had worn underneath his pants that day. They had both stripped down to lighter clothing to compensate for the increasing heat as well as the amount of sweat that clearing the debris required.

Sensing eyes staring at him, Jimmy glanced over his shoulder to look at Cindy. "Something the matter?" he asked her. He had looked just in time to see Cindy turn her head away and inspect a random flower, hiding her face behind the piece of flora.

He could barely contain the smirk that stretched itself across his face. "Enjoying the view?" he teased, illicting a deeper blush from Cindy. Not wanting to waste anymore time, however, he continued on his way, hacking at more foliage as he led them closer and closer to the waterfall.

Try as he might, however, he could not entirely banish the sight of the currently-scantily-clad Cindy Vortex out of his mind's eye. Like him, Cindy was dressed in barely anything. She wore a pair of cut-off Daisy Duke-style jean shorts and a light green bikini top that left not very much to his maturing imagination.

His mind then zoomed back to look at Cindy as a whole. She had indeed grown into a very beautiful woman, but he was very quick to remind himself that she was also a strong woman. A very strong woman with a very solid right hook that he would soon be reintroduced to if she ever found out about even half of his thoughts about her.

But strong as she was, it is well-hidden by that beauty, a natural camoflauge of porcelain-clear, pearly white skin. There were no burly biceps, just slim, smooth arms. Her hands were not calloused but instead softer than a morning breeze. She was, in fact, like a lioness; a strong, unmatched fighter hidden beneath a deceptively charming aura of beauty.

It was a rather uneventful hike, what with there being no giant spider webs or packs of giant boa constrictors this time around. This allowed for frequent day dreaming by both teens, all of which were about the other.

Their respective thoughts were soon interrupted as Jimmy cut one last vine and led them out into a clearing. The roar of rushing water careening over a steep mountain ledge and crashing into the lake below filled their ears as they approached what appeared to be a steep cliff.

The sounds grew louder as they reached the edge of the cliff and like the last time they had been to the island, the first thing they saw was the waterfall. A rainbow cast itself across the water particles as they fell as a collective mass down into the lake below, coursing down beside the rocky bluffs. A heavy white mist pooled at the very base of the waterfall before it gave way to crystalline blue waters.

Jimmy smiled at Cindy. "Shall we?"

"Let's," Cindy replied back.

Then, suddenly, they both rushed forward and jumped onto a pair of vines that were left hanging in front of them. They both hollered Tarzan's famous yell as they swung across the waters, releasing at their peak height so that they plummetted straight down into the cool waters below.

Cindy surfaced first, laughing as she brushed her soaking wet lockes of gold out of her face. "Jimmy, that was awesome!" She brushed the water out of her eyes. "Wasn't it Jimmy?" She looked around. "Jimmy?" Worry now covered her face as she twirled around frantically.

"Jimmy?" she murmured again, her anxiety ringing clear in her voice. "This isn't funny anymore, Neutron!"

She then let out a sharp scream that roosted several birds from their nests in the canopies of the forest as she was lifted above the water. Looking down, she saw Jimmy grinning like a Cheshire cat as he held her on top of his shoulders. "Neutron!" she screamed indingnantly. "Let me down!"

"If you say so," he replied, smirking.

Cindy paled at the look she was given. "Jimmy," she said through gritted teeth. "If you do what I think you're gonna-"

She was cut short when Jimmy did exactly as she thought he would do. Grabbing her legs, he shoved her up into the air and let her fall down into the water. Sputtering back to the surface, she glared at Jimmy who was laughing hysterically. She responded by splashing water at his face.

This still did not quiet his laughter and as angry as she should have felt, she could only resist the feeling building up inside of her for so long before she too bursted open with laughter.

Eventually, their laughter did die down, and Jimmy and Cindy found themselves sitting on the lake shore, Cindy sitting on a rock hanging over the water ringing her wet hair dry while Jimmy examined the surrounding area. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"Surveying the land for a good building site," he answered. He knelt down to feel the texture of the soil. "I was thinking that we could build the house back here this time. The front's close and all, but with time going like it is, night fall is probably going to be coming along pretty soon."

"Plus," he said as he began to tick the next few things off on his hand, "it's close to the lake so we have plenty of drinking water and probably some good freshwater fish. Then, we can always get firewood and extra building materials from the nearby forest. Oh, and then there's the added privacy bonus. We could do anything we want and not have to worry about someone walking in on us."

Cindy blushed as her imagination drifted where it shouldn't for a moment. "Jimmy, are you saying what I think you're saying?" she whispered.

Jimmy soon caught on to where her mind went and his face lit up with a deep crimson hue as well. "I, uh... That's not, um... I mean, that is unless you, uh..."

Ah, who doesn't love Stammering and Stuttering Nervous Young Lover Theatre?

"I, uh... I mean, I thought you..."

"Well, that is to say, we could, well..."

"No! I, mean, no, yes! I do! But, well, I..."

"Well, me neither, unless you, uh..."

"Er..."

"Uh..."

After a bit more stammering and stuttering on both of their parts, the two red-faced teens had finally changed the topic, thanks to Jimmy. "I'm gonna go get the lumber from up front," he said as he pressed a button on his watch. It a matter of mere seconds, the hovercraft had soared over the trees and set down in front of him. "It won't take me long. I'll use the tractor beam on this thing to bring as much of it back here as I can, so it'll only take two trips. In the mean time, think you can get some food and a fire started?"

Cindy nodded, trying not to look him into the eye. "Sure." She then smirked as she looked into the water. "Let's see, would you like fish, fish, or fish?"

Jimmy laughed as he entered the hovercar. "What was that last one?" he asked rhetorically.

She giggled and walked over to the hovercar. "That'd be fish."

"Then fish it is." His right hand went over to unlatch his multi-purpose watch before handing it to Cindy. "This will help you get the fire started. Laser's the top left button." Leaning over, he kissed her on the cheek. Then, yanking on the throttles, he sent the hovercar rising back up into the air, leaving behind a red-faced, blushing Cindy.

The blonde teen sighed contently as Jimmy's hovercar vanished out of sight over the tree tops. She then began to get to work on gathering some firewood. Walking to the edge of the forest, she began to pick up some loose twigs, sticks, and dead grass to use as a starter fuel for the fire. However, she froze and stared off into the forest, its mysteries hidden by the darkness caused by its density and the barrier formed by the tree canopies preventing light from truly reaching the bottom.

She swallowed nervously as her hazel-green eyes swung back and forth in front of her, all of the muscles in her body tensing as she prepared for a fight. Seconds ticked by as she stood frozen, still searching the trees for any movement that could warn her of potential danger. Her heart drummed in her chest, her breathing becoming slightly ragged as adrenaline began to course through her veins.

As seconds grew closer to minutes, she began to move again, slowly, and she resumed her task of picking up scraps for the fire. Her eyes never left the treeline, though, and her hands had to blindly grope for whatever trigs and sticks were on the ground.

Suddenly, she saw it, a slight hint of movement. Not caring whether it was a mere falling leaf or an undead Templar Crusader, she picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at where she thought she saw the movement. She waited.

And waited.

Nothing. She froze again. Could she have imagined it? The thought had barely crossed her mind before the tree line rustled. She tensed her body again as she fell flat on her hind end out of surprise. Her hand grasped for another rock. As she raised her arm to throw it, a beautiful tropical parrot burst from the tree line and soared across the lake clearing, quickly entering the trees on the other side.

She rolled her eyes at her own paranoia, releasing the rock and picking up her dropped stash of firewood scraps. "Just a stupid bird," she muttered angrily to herself as she headed over to where Jimmy had left her. Dumping the twigs, sticks, and other assorted combustibles into a small, neat pile, she began to stack some rocks to outline the location of the camp fire.

As she began work on the fire, using Jimmy's watch to set fire to the pile, the parrot roosted in the canopy of a nearby tree that had a dominating view of the entire area, from the waterfall to the camp site, and even the trail they had traversed. Its eyes glistened with digital coding as the information as well as the live, streaming image it recorded was transmitted fifty miles below it into the control room.

* * *

The fire was the only source of illumination besides the Moon and the stars as Cindy lay in Jimmy's arms while they both sat complacently on the grass in front of the newly built cabin. Thanks in no small part to Jimmy's own ingenius take on quick-drying super-adhesive glue, they were able to build a sizeable hut for them to live in as he had done the last time they were there.

Construction had started shortly after their little lunch break which included some type of exotic fish from the lake as well as fresh bananas from the forest. Afterwards, Jimmy and Cindy had started to work on the wood cabin, and by sundown, the entire structure was finished.

It didn't take long for night to fully set around them. The Sun vanished over the tree lines and was soon replaced by the off-white glow of the Moon draping its soft glow across the island while the stars dotted the sky. Above them and around the clearing, fireflies soon raced into the breach and produced their own natural sunshine.

Cicadas whined and crickets chirped in the background ambience. The cascading waterfall added to the symphony of the nocturnal creatures of the island. The occasional crackle of the fiercely burning campfire joined in with the orchestra.

Cindy smiled up at Jimmy. "Jimmy... This has to be the best day of our vacation yet..." she murmured softly as she looked off into the flickering flames of the fire. She snuggled her head closer into Jimmy's chest.

Jimmy smiled back softly. For once, the boy genius was at a loss for words. His extensive mastery of the English language had for the first time failed to produce a single word that he could say to her without saying too much as he usually does. He mentally shrugged. Perhaps it was because there was nothing that needed to be said.

His arms tightened around her waist gently as he laid down, dragging her down with him softly. He caught her smile as she inched closer to him, lining her body up alongside his as she laid beside him on the lush, green grass that encompassed the lake. He smiled back once more and lifted his head up slightly to kiss her lightly on the lips.

She kissed him back tenderly with a soft, gentle passion. Finally, they pulled back staring into the other's eyes, a blue as deep as the sea clashing with a green as vivid and alive as the grass they were now laying on. Cindy then laid her head on his chest, pressing her body closely to his.

They sat there on the grass before the fire for who knew how long, minutes? Hours? Neither of them cared as they lost themselves in each other's presence. However, Jimmy was stirred out of their reverie by Cindy's yawn.

Chuckling, he looked down at Cindy who was struggling to keep her eyes open. He looked into her half-lidded eyes and murmured, "Tired?"

"No," she replied stubbornly but her body betrayed her as she let out another yawn. At Jimmy's subsequent laugh, she simply shot out a half-hearted, "Shut up."

Picking her up in his arms, he carried her into the hut that they had built earlier that day. It wasn't the most luxurious looking of places but to them and for the next few days they'll be staying, it was home. He had concocted an irrigation system that provided fresh water from the waterfall to use for their personal hygiene.

A bed big enough for the both of them sat in the corner, vines holding together the wood that formed the structure that supported the memory foam mattress that Jimmy had pulled from out of his hypercube. After all, what's the use of having an entire dimension of infinite storage if you didn't put everything in there, the kitchen sink included?

Beside the bed was a small dresser where they had unloaded all of their things, Jimmy's stuff in the bottom two drawers and Cindy's things in the top two drawers. On top of the dresser were some of the things that were too small or valuable or otherwise unsuited to go in the drawers such as Cindy's hair scrunchie, Jimmy's hypercube, and their cell phones.

In the middle of the room hung a lantern Jimmy had created out of what he supposed was tiki wood and had crafted into the ergonomic style of boxed Oriental lanterns. He installed a mechanism that, paired with a light sensor and a transponder that corresponded with his watch, that turned on when it turned dark and turned off when Jimmy so commanded.

To top it all off, there was a window hanging over the bed that would give the both of them a superb view of the waterfall and the surrounding area tomorrow morning. Jimmy had specially designed the window's placement as well as the arc of the sunlight so that by the time he estimated they would wake up, the Sun would hit the waterfall in the most perfect of ways.

Smiling to himself as he thought about tomorrow, he laid Cindy down on the mattress. She smiled weakly as she wiggled herself underneath the soft, warm bed sheets, monogrammed with Jimmy's signature atom emblem. Scooting over, she made room for Jimmy who had climbed into bed after her.

Lifting his wrist, he pressed a couple of quick commands. Soon, the lantern's illuminating flame was extinguished and the door slowly slid shut. He then pulled Cindy into his arms. She curled closely into his form and soon, the two fell asleep in each other's embrace.

* * *

"Status report," he barked out, looking down the catwalks at the scientists that filled the room. "How are our esteemed guests doing?"

A scientist glanced up from his computer monitor to look at the General. "Their heart beats are slowing down, scanners are detecting limited brain activity. They're asleep, sir. The drug we introduced to the water will have them in deep REM sleep within ten minutes."

The General nodded, his lips twisting into a wretched, toothy grin. "Excellent." He then lifted a walkie talkie to his mouth. He clicked it on. "Red Leader, do you read me?"

A slight pause, then, "Five-by-five, sir, go ahead."

"Proceed with your orders. Bring them back here, to the detention center, Cell Block A. I want them alive and unharmed, if possible. They're usless dead and less willing to help us if injured. Am I understood?"

"Affirmative, sir. Red Leader, out."

He turned his attention back to the large monitor before him as the camera focused away from the hut that Neutron and his girlfriend had created and towards the waterfall. For a moment, there was simply the same cascading water falling down over and over again.

Then, a single figure clad in black and armed to the teeth poked out of the cascading waters. Shimmying alongside the sides of the rocks and crossing onto dry land, the figure unslung an M16 assault rifle, kneeling down to examine the scene. He then waved his hand forward. After a moment's pause, four figures mimicked his same movements and gathered around him.

The first figure stood up and raised his fist, clasping it. He then waved it forward and began to move in front of the hut's door. The camera captured the special ops team's every move as they assembled in front of the door.

Satisfied that all would be taken care of accordingly, the General turned away from the screen and headed down the catwalk. He then made his way out of the room and towards the base's seldom used detention area to await the arrival of their honored guests. What kind of host would he be if he didn't greet his guests?

* * *

**Alright, sorry for the delay in update. Finals, relationship problems, you know how it is. Anyways, it's finally up and the next chapter is in production. Read and Review, please!**


	5. Paradise Lost

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time. And yes, I have not changed this disclaimer message whatsoever. Except now.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 5**

**Paradise Lost**

**

* * *

**

Jimmy never was one for out-of-body experiences. He never believed in them, quite frankly, passing them off as being scientifically impossible. However, what he was experiencing now couldn't be explained by science, at least not right now. In anycase, he had no idea how to react to it, if he could, anyways. Maybe because although it seemed to take several minutes to develop, what ruined his restful sleep beside Cindy took only a few seconds to play out.

He heard the slam of the door as someone kicked it off its crude hinges, yet he couldn't even react to it. He could hear boots stomping across the ground, yet they sounded so far-off in the distance, even as they grew closer. He could feel calloused hands yank him from out and under the bed sheets and felt his hands being tied behind his back, yet he couldn't move a muscle.

His mind, the only thing that wasn't completely locked down, raced as he thought of options. He attempted to move his arm, but it didn't respond to any of his mental commands. He couldn't even wiggle his fingers. He was aware of the presence of the scratchy, nylon rope that bound his hands together behind him, but he could only just barely feel how tight his wrists were tied together.

Finally, he found the one part of his body that he had even the slightest control of. Although opening his eyes felt like lifting a two hundred and fifty ton sumo wrestler with only one hand, he managed to do so, albeit only halfway. But through his murky, blurry, half-lidded eyes, he saw Cindy in the moonlight being subject to the same treatment, lying almost as listlessly as he was now.

Suddenly, a fiery strength ignited within him. Sensation began to rush through his body and he could feel adrenaline racing through his every vein and artery. Feeling came back to his arms and legs, and he threw himself backwards, mentally smirking in satisfaction as he felt his body collide firmly with another body, sending both him and one of the intruders to the ground.

He felt his head connect with something solid and then his satisfaction doubled when he felt a warm liquid spray onto the back of his neck. If he was correct, and he usually was, he had just given the guy he had jumped into a bloody nose. The vulgarity uttered immediately afterwards quickly confirmed his hypothesis.

"Damnit, he's coming around," he heard a voice suddenly call out from the shadows of the cabin. "Tranq him, quick."

'Tranq?' he mulled over in his mind as he tried to stagger up to his feet, his eyes searching the dimly lit cabin for solid targets to blindly tackle into. He only saw several dark, sillohuetted figures. That was good enough for Jimmy, however. He lunged himself at the closest sillohueted figure.

He was jerked backwards, however, as two strong hands clamped down onto his arms. "Gotcha, ya scrawny little punk," his new captor seethed as he strengthened his grasp, causing Jimmy to cry out slightly in pain.

Then, the figure he had just tried to lunge at reached down for something in a mid-thigh pocket. "Hold still, kid. This won't hurt a bit."

Everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the other side of the room as the intruder that was holding Cindy yelped. "Ah, she bit me! The fucking bitch bit me!" Cindy's bite was, apparently, as strong as her bite; when the man yanked his hand away, he saw that it was bleeding profusely, meaning that Cindy had broken the skin with her vicious bite.

"Bitch?! Who are you calling a bitch?!" Cindy roared back as she tried to fight out of the man's hold. The man retaliated by reaching into his own mid-thigh pocket, pulling out a syringe. He could actually feel Cindy's eyes bulge as she saw the syringe. "Wh-What are you doing? Wait, no! Stop! Stop!"

Jimmy thrashed about and tried to break loose from the grip of whoever was holding him from behind. He was about to yell his own angry protest before he felt a sharp pain tear through his arm. His cry of protest came out as a shrill yelp of pain that died at this lips.

Suddenly, the world dimmed as he glanced lazily over at his burning arm to see a needle stabbing into it. Following the needle, he looked at the syringe, and then further to the hand that injected whatever poison it contained into his body.

His lips grew dry and his eyelids became heavy as his knees buckled. He was only able to glance at Cindy who illicited a similar, short cry of pain as the syringe was injected into her arm as well before her body slumped lifelessly into the arms of her captor before he followed suit.

The world suddenly plunged into darkness.

* * *

_The soft ocean breeze tickled their faces as the gallop of the waves across the deep blue sea caressed their ears. The sand beneath their toes was still warm from the glow of the Sun. It was the perfect end to one of the most perfect days that either of them had experienced. It was almost too good to be true._

_"Jimmy, wasn't this the best day ever?"_

_He looked away slightly as gears wound in his head. "You mean not counting the time NASA let me use the Magellan Telescope to view the convergence of the Trillium and Crab Nebula?" He looked back over to Cindy who hurriedly slapped a smile over her increasingly confused and slightly annoyed face._

_"Uh-huh!" she said hurriedly, nodding as she tried to keep that smile on her face, really not wanting to ruin the rare moment they were now sharing._

_Jimmy smiled brightly at her. "Definitely."_

_Letting out a deep sigh, Cindy gazed affectionately over at Jimmy. "And to think," she said, glancing away to look at the setting sun across the horizon, "we get to do this everyday. No more homework, or chores, or mean people..." She glanced slyly over at him as she scooted across the log they were sitting on towards Jimmy. "Just you and me and all the time in the world..."_

_Jimmy smiled back and then looked away, the onset of a familiar, crimson hue beginning to form on his cheeks. "Uh, Cindy... I... got you a present."_

_She gawked at him in disbelief. "A present?!" Her hands clasped themselves together in front of her excitedly as her lips broke out into a broad smile. "On a deserted island? But how?" Her smile faded slightly, however, when the young, shirtless boy genius produced a simple shellfish from behind his back and placed it into her hand. "Oh... A mollusk. How... charming..."_

_"You're supposed to open it," he stated matter-of-factly._

_Cindy did as prompted and her reaction couldn't have pleased Jimmy more. "A pearl," she murmured as she softly caressed the smooth surface of the natural jewel, taking in its transcendent beauty as one of the last fleeting rays of sunlight glinted off of its shiny surface. She held a hand over her chest as she gazed at it. "Oh Jimmy, it's beautiful!"_

_Jimmy looked away, embarassed slightly, and waved it off. "Aw, it's nothin' really," he replied modestly. "While you were gathering fruit, I decided to open up a few oysters, a hundred and thirty seven actually."_

_The blonde smiled sheepishly at him, hiding her beautiful hazel eyes beneath her blonde bangs. "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me," she murmured softly as she slipped her hand into his._

_They shared the first of many soft smiles together as they turned to stare off at the setting sun. The tide came in, reaching for them. Jimmy could hear the water as it sloshed across the sand. The sloshing grew louder however and the tide faded back. His mind suddenly became alert as he saw the tide draw back by nearly a mile. He knew what that meant. This wasn't supposed to happen. A tsunami? On the most perfect day of his life?_

_He gritted his teeth. "Cindy, hate to spoil the moment, but we gotta go. That's the sign of a tsunami-" When he looked over at Cindy, she had changed. She was taller, more... womanly, and much more beautiful._

_But more importantly, she was being dragged away. Two men, clad in black, assault rifles slung over their shoulders, grabbed her by the arms and carried her off into the dark of the dense forest._

_"JIMMY!" she screamed as she men took her deeper into the forest, its green depths swallowing them whole._

_"CINDY!" he screamed in return as he tried to rip himself from the log to take chase. However, his arms and legs felt like they had been frozen in carbonite and locked into place. "What? Hey, what's going on here! Why can't I move?"_

_He was able to move his head, however, and he looked down at his hands to see that they had more than tripled in size. He looked over to his legs to see that his legs had grown much longer and that instead of his swimming trunks, he was wearing a pair of jeans and cowboy boots. 'Those look like something my Uncle would wear,' he mused as his mind raced to catch up with itself._

_A shrill whining sound attracted his attention to the sky where he saw the Sun standing over him. It appeared as if it were seething at him, its light glaring down at him with no heat but simply blinding, glaring light. There was a loud, mechanical groan from it as the angry ball of hydrogen defied the laws of physics, hanging high at its noon position when it should be dusk._

_He looked away from the bizarre and alarming sight and back at the forming tsunami. He frantically tried to urge his limbs to move but to no avail. The waters had receeded far enough and were now racing towards him at speeds faster than any tsunami he had ever witnessed. Fear resonated in his entire being as the waters crashed into his body._

* * *

He coughed the water out of his lungs as the cold liquid dripped from his face and body and pooled onto the floor around him.

"That's enough. He's coming around."

The voice snapped him immediately awake. He opened his eyes wide only to shut them back tightly as the swinging single light bulb that lit up first one end of the room and then the other blinded him. After screwing his eyes tightly together for a moment, he slowly allowed them to open, giving himself first to adjust to the light.

The first thing he saw was a blurry, sillohuetted figure standing in the threshhold of what looked like a prison door cell. As his visionrefocused, he noticed in his peripheral view two men standing on either side of the man, but closer, towards Jimmy. It was then that he noticed that one of them held an empty bucket in his hand.

A surge of images flashed through his mind. He remembered sleeping soundly beside Cindy. He remembered the door being busted down and being yanked from bed. He remembered being stabbed in the arm by a syringe filled with some type of liquid anasthetic. He especially remembered the busted nose he had given to apparently the man on the right, a tall, muscular man of all people who looked none too happy to see him. Apparently, he remembered it as well.

"Mr. James Isaac Neutron." The same voice from before caught his attention and he looked over to the man standing in the threshold of the doorway. He stepped out of the dimly lit hallway and into the only slightly more lit cell, as it was apparent that that was where Jimmy was now. The man, in summary, looked like someone from a Jet Fusion movie. Military uniform, disfigured face, and of course a deep, villainous voice, the only thing missing was perhaps a rotating chair and a fat, white cat.

"I must say, it's an honor to finally meet you," the man continued as he stepped closer to Jimmy, standing only a few feet away.

"I wish I could say the same," Jimmy replied wryly. "Unfortunately, I don't know who you are, Mr..."

"Who I am isn't important," the man in the military uniform replied curtly. "What is important is who you are, Mr. Neutron."

"If I had a nickle for everytime some megalomaniac said that..." Jimmy muttered under his breath. He looked over at the scarred man. "And why am I so important, then, Mr. Man With No Name?"

The man paused. He smirked slightly. "I am asking you to do a great service to your country, no, the world. Mr. Neutron." He paced around Jimmy who turned his head to follow, long having known that moving his head was the only movement he was allowed considering he was tied firmly to a chair with some type of reinforced steel clamps.

'Might as well play a long,' Jimmy mused angrily to himself as he watched the man carefully. "And what service is that, exactly?"

"Change." The man stopped behind Jimmy, putting his hands on the back of the chair Jimmy was strapped to. "We need you to change the soiled fabric of the world's very society. We were well on our way to doing so anyways, but then you happened upon our humble island and we thought it would be cruel to not invite the world reknown James Isaac Neutron to join in on our grand plan."

"I'm flattered," Jimmy replied dryly.

"You should be. This is history in the making, Mr. Neutron."

"Sounds more like a bad action movie or a stupid story I've read somewhere off the Internet."

"If that's the case, then you should get out more."

"Why not start now?" Jimmy retorted arrogantly. "How about you let me go free so I can get out a bit more. You know, go sky-diving, see that new sci-fi movie that just came out, oh, and then I think I'll have a chat with the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff so they can drop fifty tons of explosive payload onto this humble island of yours?"

The man stopped in his circular pacing and gave Jimmy a sharp look. Seeing this look, the man with the broken nose, evident by the bandage covering his nasal appendage, stepped forward and backhanded Jimmy. The force of the blow sent him and his chair toppling onto his side. The other man waited for a moment before stepping forward as well and righting both Jimmy and the chair. Jimmy coughed painfully and grimaced at the taste of blood in his mouth.

"I'd watch your tongue if I were you," the man in the military uniform. "Besides, you didn't think that plan out very carefully. Even if the payload were to drop on this island, it would never reach us where we are. And even if it could... Your precious Cynthia Vortex would be blown to bits like the rest of us."

The air was knocked out of his lungs, more than if the burly, broken-nosed behemoth that had just smacked him like a ragdoll had uppercutted him in the stomach. "Cindy," he murmured breathlessly. An icy spike tore through his heart as he remembered that Cindy was probably in as much trouble as he was. Fire filled his chest and his eyes as he glared at the man. "Where is she?! Tell me! I swear to God, if you laid a hand on her-"

"You're not in any position to make threats, Mr. Neutron," the man stated flatly as he hunched over to stare into Jimmy's eyes. The boy shuddered as the steel and ice and fire in the man's one good eye stared into his.

"Let's get down to brass tacks here, since you're so eager... " he said, his glare never faltering. "You are my prisoner. So is she. You will help me and my assosciates accomplish our goals. And if you don't, well... I'm sure those Jet Fusion movies you kids love to watch nowadays can already tell you where I'm going with this. You help, you both live and can see the new future. You don't, well, you live and you get to see her die."

Gritting his teeth, Jimmy glared angrily at the man. However, with each passing second, his glare weakened along with his inner fire. He knew he was beat and there was nothing he could do, at least not right now. He sighed in defeat and bowed his head low in acquiescence. "Looks like I don't have much of a choice, now do I?"

Not expecting answer, Jimmy continued. "Will I get to see her at all?"

"Naturally," the man replied. He straightened himself and at this cue, the two men released the metal clasps holding Jimmy's arms and legs and picked him up out of the chair. "We're not monsters, after all," the man said with a cruel smirk as he stepped out of the cell and into the hallway. "Mr. Neutron, this way, if you will."

He didn't have much choice on whether or not to obey the man's "request" either as he was shoved forward by one of the guards that had captured Cindy and him. He heard rifles being unslung and felt the nudge of a gun barrel. He began to walk on his own free will now, ironically at the business end of two gun barrels.

Identical cells whisked by as he was led towards the end of the cell block. The hall of the detention area they were in was dimly lit by flourescent light bulbs that hung far away from each other, at least a good ten feet between each. The dim lighting cast grim shadows into the cells, undoubtedly for a terrifying psychological factor for whatever persons were supposed to be confined in the cells for prolonged periods of time.

Prisoner comfort was not a priority, it seemed, as there was no bed, simply a ratty old, sleeping bag thrown haphazardly into the corner of each cell. In addition to that, the cells themselves were rather small, the area being somewhere around five and eight square feet. A Thai-style squatting hole served as the toilet, sitting near the back end of the room. There were no windows and the only source of light in the cell came only from the sole light bulb that hung low from the ceiling, low enough, perhaps, for a prisoner to hang themselves. The length of the cord was more likely than not intentional.

The cell block corridor they were walking down gave Jimmy plenty of time to contemplate, much like a death row prisoner on their last march. However, instead of mortality on his mind, he thought about the man in the uniform.

Although he saw war as a barbaric human practice, he recognized the need for militaries in order to keep megalomaniacs on the rise at bay, at the risk that it could be a double-edged sword. So, he had devoted at least a quarter of all lab time into the research of military technologies, preferrably non-lethal and defensive inventions rather than weapons of death and destruction. As a scientist, he had to work for the preservation and benefit of mankind, not its ruination and extinction.

Because of his inventions, he was well acquainted with a good number of military officials, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretaries of War, Homeland Security, and Defense, and a few station chiefs in key military bases. At 17, he has had his fair share of exposure to military doctorine and procedure as well as rank and protocol, enough so to even grant him a Top Secret security clearance as well as a spot on the Need To Know list of most military research projects. He could spot out a rank from a crowd and knew that the uniform the man was wearing was that of the United States Army.

The dark green coloration of the so-called Army Green service uniform was a dead give-away. As far as he knew, there were no other militaries that employed the same color dress uniform for their military personnel. Counting the number of stars on the man's shoulder epaullettes told Jimmy that the man is, or perhaps was, a Lieutenant General Officer in the US Army.

This led to a new spur of thoughts as they neared the end of the hallway. 'What is an Army General doing here? Where is here, even? It could be that this is a US military installation, but given that he knows my name, the likelihood of that is very unlikely. He would have to have it run and then he'd probably be told by his superiors to let me go. Also, the cells are a major breach in prisoners' rights and I'm pretty sure this isn't Guantanamo Bay. No, he can't be under anyone's jurisdiction, especially after that diatribe of 'change' he wanted me to help bring. He's just another power-hungry nutcase seeking world domination.'

He frowned. 'Still... the cadence in his march, his haircut, these gorillas holding me at gunpoint, they all look very Army to me. A rogue? Most definitely. Well, I guess that for whatever this guy wants me to do, he'll get more than just treason charges if he's caught. All the more reason that I need to find a way to bring him down... Somehow...'

Once they reached the door, the General stepped forward and began to type away at a keypad beside the steel door. Each key that he pressed glowed and they all blinked twice before the keypad chirped affirmatibely. The door hissed open and gasses snuck out from the hydraulic vents.

Jimmy, blinded by the bright light that soon filled a good portion of the hallway, turned his head away. He then turned his head back, squinting his eyes to allow them at least a little time to adjust to the lighting. He didn't have the luxury to do so in the hallway, however, as one of the guards behind shoved him forward with a rifle butt.

After regaining his footing, he looked around the brightly lit room. In sharp contrast to the dark and desolate hallway, the laboratory they had entered was well lit, hygenic, and bustling with activity.

Men, all of varying ages but the majority being somewhere in there mid-20s, walked briskly across the room. All wore what appeared to be a grayscale version of a Mao suit underneath all-too familiar lab coats. Not a single one of them was stationary for long as they each went about the room, checking this terminal here and yelling at that computer there to work.

It was relatively quiet around the room aside from the whir of machinery and the bells and whistles given off every once in a while by the computer terminals. However, there was an ambiance of frantic anxiety around the room as clipboards and files were passed along and floor superintendents pacing on the catwalks above dropped new orders down to awaiting couriers on the ground floor. It was like a silent picture movie of the Wall Street Exchange, except with lab coats and Mao suits.

All activity stopped, however, as the scientists spotted the General heading their way. The lab coat-wearing men quickly stepped aside to make way for him while others stared at Jimmy, murming to themselves and each other.

"Is that-"

"I think it is..."

"Clarkson from Control, he mentioned something like this... So it's true..."

"James Neutron... here?"

"The project will be a success for sure!"

"Yes, the project... I can't even fathom what this can do for our production success..."

"If he agrees to it, that is."

"Young as he is, he is intelligent. I'm sure he will."

"I doubt he'll have much choice."

None of these words comforted Jimmy. 'What project?' he thought as he continued to follow the General at the guards' urging. 'Was the project one of the goals that this guy, this general, was talking about? Just what is going on? If only Goddard was here... I could be out of here in a second!' His last thought was cut short when he saw the General make an abrupt right.

Following him, he found himself being led through another door and down another corridor, this one simply plain and sterile, an eerie white glow resonating from all sides of the hallway, including the floor and the ceiling. Jimmy cleared his throat bravely.

"Where are you taking me, exactly?"

"The medical bay," the older man replied curtly. "That girl that was with you, she's... fiestier than she looks..." He grimaced visibly. "She completely fractured one of my guard's jaw and incapacitated three others before she was caught. She's under a heavy dose of sedatives, for her own well-being, along with my men's." He smirked cruelly. "They're more than trigger happy after her last outburst, so I think it'd be best if you calmed her down."

During this revelation, Jimmy did his best to keep his emotions off of his face. It was difficult to hide the smirk that threatened to rise from hearing that she'd done a number on a few of their new foe's henchmen, but it wasn't nearly as difficult to hide as the fire in his blood that ignited when he heard the underlying threat behind the General's suggestion.

Eventually, he calmed himself down as they reached the door. "I'll keep that in mind," he replied. The door hissed open as the other ones had, revealing yet another sterile room. However, this room seemed more appropriate for the sterile setting.

The medical bay was nothing more than rows upon rows of beds, all of which had leather straps lying on the bed, undoubtedly for strapping down patients. The infirmary was oddly quiet, however; no patients, no medical staff, not even a janitor or maintenance crew.

A glint of gold caught his eye and he eagerly stared down the aisles of medical beds. There, strapped firmly to a bed, laid Cindy, a golden-tressed sleeping beauty surrounded by white sheets.

"Cindy!" he yelled and broke free from his captors, charging down the hall. He immediately began to hover over her, his hands grabbing her shoulders. "Cindy, Cindy, wake up! Cindy! Wake up! Come on, please wake up, please!"

His heart pounded in his throat and he felt the urge to vomit as Cindy remained motionless on the bed. His mind swirled and his body ached and there was nothing but ice in his stomach while fire raged on in his eyes. "Cindy... Please..." he murmured as his hands clenched around the sheets. He bowed his head low, touching the soft, cotton medical sheets.

"There, there, Mr. Neutron. She'll be up within the hour."

Jimmy's head snapped up to address the new voice, a scratchy, aged voice with a mild hint of a German accent, Low Rhenish if his expert opinion was correct. He turned around to see a man decorated in a white lab coat over what appeared to be a military uniform standing not too far away from him, the General and his two henchmen just behind him.

"You!" he barked through gritted teeth. "Who are you? What've you done to her? What exactly did you inject her with?"

"Allow me to introudce myself," he replied, waving his hand with dramatic flair. "I am Dr. Heinrich Franz Meir. Perhaps you've heard of me?" "

Jimmy paused for a moment, racking his memory for that name. In all of the Nobel Prize Conferences he'd attended in his life time, in all of the books on scientific studies he'd memorized, and in all seventeen years of his life, he had never heard or read about any 'Dr. Heinrich Franz Meir.' At least, he was fairly sure he never had. The name jumped out at him but after several failed tries to forge a connection, he brushed it aside.

"I'm sorry to dissappoint, _Doctor_," he sneered, spitting out the last word with a heavy coat of sarcasm and venom, "but unless you mean if I've heard of a scientific nobody, then no, I don't think I have heard of you."

Instead of a stern scowl or a withering glare, the man's lips cracked into a slight, thin lipped smile. "Oh, you will. In fact, soon, the entire world will." Before Jimmy could rebuke, he added, "And to answer your second question, don't worry about your lady friend. As I'm sure my friend here has already mentioned, she's been sedated. Hopefully, when she comes to, she'll be a lot less trouble... For her sake."

Jimmy stood up and squared his shoulders as he glared at the man. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The man's wrinkled lips cracked into an even wider smirk, his liverspotted and pockmarked face, withered with time, contorting to accomodate for the fiendish, toothy, and deceptive smile. "You're our honored guests. She's just extra baggage."

As a scientist, Jimmy could break down exactly what his mind was telling his body. The man's last remark triggered a flight-or-fight response within his cerebral cortex. At this point in time, fight was the only viable and acceptable course of action.

He charged the man. "I'll kill you!" he promised as he took one step towards the man.

The world vanished before his eyes for a split second before it flipped and turned. A glaring white light stared down at him as he tried to reopen his eyes. A sudden jolt similar to an electric shock then coursed through his body, the pain eminating from and concentrated around his stomach. He rolled over onto his side and coughed, the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth.

His eyes finally blinked themselves half-open, enough for him to see a small splatter pattern of blood on the pristine linoleum floor in front of him. A terrible pain racked his body as he rolled onto his hands and knees, his left hand grasping his abdomen which felt as if it were on fire.

"That outta learn 'em," seethed a voice that hovered above him.

"Jeez, Crawler, did you have to hit him with the rifle?" chimed in a second voice that was not that far away from the first.

"Enough," he heard someone a little further away say. The voice was muddled and indistinguishable as his vision slowly began to fade. "These two are in no condition to cooperate at the moment; let's wait for them to cool off and let the initial shock fade first. Dr. Meir, I'll you to get back to your work."

"Jawohl, Herr General. Send for me when these two are both conscious and... more cooperative. Or better yet, send them to me. I have much to show our new friend Mr. Neutron."

Jimmy gritted his teeth as he tried to stagger back up onto his feet. "If you two don't let us go," he muttered weakly, and knowingly in futile, "I'm going to show you just how far it is scientifically and physically possible to shove a size 10 shoe up a rectal cavity."

A scoff. "Sedate him." Jimmy's eyes nearly opened completely as the two words registered. Before he could protest, a sharp pain stung in his shoulder before fading entirely. His body collapsed with a resounding thud onto the tile floor. "Escort Mr. Neutron and Ms. Vortex to their new quarters. Make sure that the doors are locked."

* * *

"Jimmy?"

He groaned lightly as the soft voice caressed his ear drums. "Cin-Cindy?" he murmured softly, his eyes not wanting to open. But he must see her beautiful face once again. "Is that really you?

"Oh thank God you're alive..." the voice murmured softly again. "Come on, Jimmy, you gotta wake up..."

His eyes slowly peered open and ocean blue eyes softened when he saw the soft dimples of Cindy's face, her tussled blonde hair framing her face. A soft smile danced across his lips. "It was a dream... it was all a dream..."

"What was?" she asked, her lips tightening into a frown, knowing full well what he was talking about.

He laughed slightly and closed his eyes, resting his head against what was a very, very soft pillow. Who knew he could create such a soft pillow, much less on a deserted island paradise. "I dreamt that we'd been abducted by some lunatic paramilitary goons sent by yet another megalomaniacal wacko. Crazy, huh?"

His laughter continued for a moment before dying off. Glancing over at Cindy, he saw that she was looking away, biting her lip as she averted her gaze.

"Cindy?" he started, worry slowly creeping into his voice. "That was some crazy dream I had, right? Right Cindy? A crazy dream?"

After a long moment of no answer, Jimmy opened his eyes slowly to see Cindy staring sadly at an imposing steel doorframe with no obvious way of opening it.

"If only it were a dream... If only it were..."

Cindy stood up and walked away from the bed and towards what appeared to be a circular window. Analyzing it for a moment, she then pressed a button on a nearby panel and the window's solid, biege blinds lifted automatically. Instead of a soothing lake or a tranquil forest outside of the window, however, there was simply an indescribable mixture of reds, oranges, and yellows.

Jimmy had made enough subterranean visits around and below the crust to know what that familiar substance slowly oozing past their window at speeds no faster than a snail was. Lava. Hot molten lava was oozing all around them, encasing them like a snowglobe in a lava lamp.

"Where are we?" he muttered under his breath as he tried to sit up. He then let out a sharp cry of pain, clutching his stomach.

"Jimmy?" Cindy exhaled. Worriedly, she rushed to his side. "Jimmy! Are you alright? What happened?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about," he said, lying through his gritted teeth. He clenched his eyes as he tried to block out the pain, laying his head down on the pillow. 'That can't be good,' he thought bemusedly. 'Let's see... Well, from my diagnosis, I've got at least a couple of fractured ribs, possibly even a broken one somewhere in there too, and some minor internal bleedings. Nothing lethal, I don't think...'

"What's going on, Neutron?" Cindy asked as she pried Jimmy's hands away from his stomach. "Move. Let me see."

"It's fine, Cindy," Jimmy replied flatly. "It's nothing serious. And to be honest, I don't know what's going on. All I know is that we're being held hostage by what looks like maybe a terrorist organization. There's definitely a strong paramilitary if not ex-military presence around here."

"And I say it is serious if you're so stubborn to not let me see it," Cindy shot back, pinning his hands to his sides. "Ugh, men! Why do you have to be so macho all the time?"

'For such a beautifully slender-bodied angel, Cindy possesses enough strength to out-arm wrestle Lou Ferrigno,' Jimmy thought wryly, as he tried to pry his arms free but to no avail.

"And what makes you say that?" she then added as she grabbed the hem of his shirt. She paused slightly and they both shared a look, blushing.

"Really, Cindy, it's fine... I'll look at it later," he murmured softly. "And what do you mean, say what?"

"About the military thing," she replied just as softly, biting her lip. She then pursed them together in determination and lifted it up slightly. The taut muscles of Jimmy's abdomen were beginning to show heavy bruising. She let out a gasp. "Neutron! What happened to you?"

"Those people that abducted us earlier, those guys that looked like Navy SEAL rip-offs, they're working for this man, a general officer, I don't know his name. There's someone else, a scientist, a Dr. Heinrich Meir. I don't know what any of them are planning, but they want me to help them on some sick plot, probably for world domination."

"Great, the usual," Cindy muttered wryly. "So what happened?"

Jimmy averted his gaze, coughing. "Um... I... probably got, um..."

"Your ass handed to you?" she replied, curtly, deciding to save him the embarassment of admitting it himself.

"... More or less..."

Cindy rolled her eyes and examined the bruises. "There's some pretty heavy bruising," she murmured softly as her fingers carefully traced one dark purple circle. Jimmy hissed in pain. "Still that sensitive, huh?"

"I told you, I've already got it covered," he replied through pain-gritted teeth. "Feels like some minor fractures and internal bleeding, but nothing too serious."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "How can you diagnose something just by feeling it like that?"

He smirked as he tried to sit up on his elbows. "Well, I am a genius." He then quickly added, "Also, when Sheen and Carl are your primary assistants... Injuries are kinda frequent. Just for kicks, I even added an 'X Days Without An Accident' sign near my workbench."

Cindy smiled half-heartedly at that and sat down calmly beside Jimmy, who tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, propping himself up against the wall beside the bed. They sat there silently for a moment, both contemplating on their current situations. Jimmy was about to propose they discuss their options together before Cindy jumped up, walked briskly to a nearby nightstand, and snap kicked it, taking a large chunk out of the night stand as well as tipping everything on it over.

"GOD DAMNIT!" she screamed in anger as she vented her unbridled fury into the poor, defenseless night stand.

"Cindy!" Jimmy yelled in alarm as he watched her further abuse of the wooden furniture.

The enraged teenager turned her attention to the locked steel door, kicking it with all her might. "Why?" she demanded, her voice cracking slightly. "Why?" she asked again, kicking it one more time. "This was supposed to be the perfect week! One of the best weeks of my life! And you've ruined it!" She began to pound her fist on the door. "You've ruined it, you hear me!"

"Cindy, calm down, please!" Jimmy urged as he staggered to his feet, his left hand clutching his stomach as he moved towards her.

"Everything was perfect up until now! Perfect!" Her tirade continued as she kicked the door once more. A miniscule dent began to form in the reinforced door. "This was the first time that the two of us could enjoy ourselves as a couple without any of that petty, teenager, high school drama bullshit!" She spun around to grab a jagged piece of the night stand and swung it at the door.

Tears began to stream down her face. "For what? Some stupid, petty plot that's doomed to fail?" The wooden debris snapped half in response to the strength behind the swing.

Undeterred, she tossed it to the side and began to pound on the door again. She then drew her fist back, ready to strike. As her fist flew towards the steel, however, her wrist was firmly grabbed by a suddenly strong hand. Her breath hitched and she glanced at the hand before looking up to its owner. Jimmy's eyes flickered with sadness at the sight of the freely crying blonde in front of him, a broken shell of strong, vicarious, independent woman she put herself out to be.

"Stop." The word was whispered, not as a command or an order, but as a desperate plea. Whereas the bottom of her fist and her foot was generally well protected, punching the door would definitely break the girl's hand, hidden strength or not. "Please, Cindy... Stop..."

Cindy tried to rip out of his grasp, but for some reason, her strength was no longer enough to overpower the tightness of his grip. She attempted to glare at him, to stare him down, to force him to let go, but the second her hazel green eyes locked into his, her scowl disappeared along with the rest of her face as she flung herself into him, embracing him tightly.

Jimmy returned the embrace, holding her closely to him as he moved them to the floor, resting against a wall. He stayed silent, patting her back soothingly as his shirt grew wetter with each passing second. Cindy's shoulders shook almost as violently as her earlier rampage against door and furniture alike as she sobbed into Jimmy's shoulder.

He tried to ease her crying, whispering into her ear. "Shh, Cindy... It's okay... We'll find a way out of this, like we always do... We'll stop these people, like we always do..." He could feel Cindy nod against his shoulder. "That's right, we'll get through this, like we always do, and we'll see our friends and family again..."

Holding her tighter, he continued. "And when we get back to Retroville, Cindy... No more... No more hiding, no more acting like we hate each other at school, no more being at each other's throats all the time like it was 4th Grade. I don't care if I have to break Nick Dean's skateboard over his head and tell Betty Quinlan she has a pigface to get people to leave us alone; I don't care anymore... I want us to be together, in everyone's eyes..."

He was worried when she didn't say anything after a while and that her shoulders had stopped shaking. Then, she softly murmured, stuttering at first. "Jimmy, that was... I... Did you..." She slowly peeled herself from his shoulder, wiping her puffy, red eyes with her hand. "Jimmy... I don't know why it's taken me so long to say this... " She stared intently into his eyes, her resolve unwavering. "I l-"

The door swung open, slamming into the wall beside them. Two carbine rifle barrels peered into the room and two armed soldiers rushed in. Another soldier, this one sporting a beret and walking into the room unarmed, beckoned to Jimmy.

"I'm assuming the commotion meant that at least one of you was awake," he said in the distinct accent of the Queen's English. "I thought I'd wait it out before coming in." The man, clearly an office of some grade, glanced at what remained of the night stand. "I'm glad I did. Come with me, both of you. I'm under orders to bring you both to Dr. Meir."

Jimmy looked apologetically to Cindy whose fists clenched in terrible fury. He took her hand in his, however, hoping to placate her enough so she didn't end up murdering any of the guards. 'At least, not until I get to the bottom of all of this,' he thought darkly as he slowly staggered to his feet.

"This way please," the officer said. He turned around sharply and walked out of the room. Jimmy and Cindy followed, Cindy boring holes into the man's back as they walked behind him, the armed guards picking up the rear.

* * *

**Alright, finally, this chapter is up! I'd like to thank all of my readers and all of my reviewers for being patient and giving some valuable input and constructive criticism, particularily Onigato who has brought to my attention a very good point: How does anyone build a base at 50 miles below sea level which, after a bit of research (i.e., Wikipedia-ing), I learned is impossible as it stretches well into the Upper Mantle which, assuming most of us have forgotten 5th Grade Science, contains molten lava.**

**I would first like to apologize to Mr. Jeff Foxworthy and admit that I am not smarter than a 5th Grader. I didn't even know 5th Graders learned half of that crap, I certainly didn't. Anyways, the only answer I can provide at this time without giving away a key plot element is that if Jimmy can travel around in space pressurized suit-less, then such a material exists that shields a base from beyond scalding hot molten rock.**

**Thank you Onigato for bringing this to my attention and I apologize for any inadverdant spelling and grammar mistakes. I look forward to further reviews like this from you and the rest of my readers as well (hint hint wink wink). Seriously, tell me what you love about the story, what you want to see more of or less of. If you have any concerns of suggestions, I'll gladly answer them both here and in private so you don't have to wait until the next release to be answered.**

**With that said, remember, R&R, and I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP.**

**Thank you,**

**Management**


	6. Herr Doktor Professor Meir, I Presume?

**Disclaimer:****I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 6**

**Herr Doktor Professor Meir, I Presume?**

* * *

They were escorted down a lavishly decorated hallway that begged a similarly more towards a hotel corridor than guest quarters in a villainous madman's secret lair. Scarlet carpets outlined the floor and ornate, decorative wallpaper depicting Valkyries and other Nordic images lined the walls. Six golden wall lamps, three on each side of the hall, provided all of the lighting for the hallway.

When they were ordered onto step on the lift at the end of the hall, Jimmy was skeptical. Unlike a normal elevator or wallless lift, there were no cables or gears that were visible to hold the circular platform up.

The platform itself was smaller than the entire elevator shaft, by just a few inches, and an unearthly bluish-white glow filtered through the gap between the platform and the encasing walls. There was still plenty room, however, about the same size as a regular elevator. A control panel was fitted to the railings that encircle the lift.

Tentatively, though, Jimmy put one foot on the lift. He breathed out sharply as his foot sank with the platform but quickly stabilized. Shakily, he put his other foot onto the platform and again, it sank, but quickly leveled out.

'Remarkable,' he thought in wide-eyed admiration as Cindy mimicked his surprise when she stepped onto the lift. 'It's like stepping onto a boat... It'll sink, but a reactionary force keeps it afloat... But there's no water here...'

As he thought about the science behind the lift, their escorts stepped onto the lift, unperturbed by the floating lift's rocking. The officer tapped a few quick commands onto the control panel and they began to descend down the elevator shaft. Jimmy glanced around the sides of the lift. There were no sounds emanating from mechanical gears or pulleys lowering the elevator.

Suddenly, a chilling thought ran through his spine. 'Oh no... What if these are repulsorlifts, like the ones on my hovercar? This lift couldn't have just been created here, so they had to have been here for a long time already, probably when this base was built... If they've mastered electromagnetic repulsion transportation, what else could they have mastered?'

Although a very familiar concept for those in the scientific community, anti-grav technology was still a far away science-fiction fantasy for the rest of the world. Even then, few in the scientific community were able to truly understand the complexities of anti-gravitational properties and the circumstances that create them.

Simply put, anti-gravity is made possible by negating the force of gravity entirely. Without gravity influencing, an object may travel freely without regard to gravity or friction, relying instead on whatever makes the anti-gravity possible to guide it where ever it wanted to go.

Jimmy had discovered the mitigating properties of anti-gravity when he was fairly younger, around his ninth birthday. What he had discovered was that by chemically switching the polarities of certain metals, he was able to make them reactionless towards gravity. As soon as he had perfected his theory and finished a forty-five page theses on it, he submitted to the Nobel Prize Committee for review.

To his surprise, however, his was not the only one. Since the early 80's, anti-gravity and hover technology became a sort of fad in the scientific community. For the most part, though, a good number of the theories were unfounded and were disproved, and the ones that did make the cut were still imperfect; there were severe limitations and impracticalities or deficiencies in the applicable theories. Jimmy's theory was the most plausible, however, but a key problem kept it from becoming pubished: in order for his anti-gravity theorem to work and become applied to real life and around the world, it meant severe mining of minerals in order to convert them into anti-gravitational materials.

However, although it wasn't approved for worldwide use and Jimmy initially abandoned the idea in favor of a project that would later develop into his first hovercar, Jimmy's notes, hypothesis, and research would later on become the basis for his second model hovercar. After strengthening the outer armor of the vehicle, he had reversed the polarity of the underside to make it reactionless towards the Earth's gravity. There were multiple instances of nearly blowing up the town via an accidental atom splice, but it didn't happen and he felt no need to tell anyone about it...

After the technology had been perfected, Jimmy realized how dangerous it would be if the technology fell into the wrong hands. If the practice of reversing polarity could be lended towards areas of warfare, there was no telling what sinister weapons could be concocted and that idea chilled him to the bone. Polarity reversal was just one step towards the creation of say a tactical missile that acted as a miniature black hole or tanks with armor that repelled bullets or missiles with a negative magnetic charge.

Jimmy abruptly pushed those damning thoughts out of his mind. 'Shouldn't bother worrying about what could be or what might be,' he thought as he watched the walls flash by. 'We'll be meeting this Dr. Meir soon enough. Meir... Definitely a German, if his accent didn't say so already. The man must be at least seventy, more likely even older than that... Why can't I get that name off my head?'

He frowned slightly. 'That name... I know that name... I've read it somewhere... At least I think I have... Come on, Neutron, this is not the time to be losing your mind or forgetting things!' he seethed at himself.

Seeing his fist clench, Cindy lightly nudged it with her hand. This was enough to snap Jimmy back to the real world. He glanced at her from the corners of his eyes, and he visibly relaxed. Fist unclenching, he tenderly took Cindy's porcelain smooth, soft hand into his.

The moment was quickly broken like the countless others before it when the lift came to a slow stop, coming to rest with such finesse that Jimmy hadn't registered the fact that they had stopped until the door in front of them opened with a hydraulic hiss. Removing their hands from each other's grasp, the two looked ahead to see the office stepping off of the lift, the guards turning around and waiting for them to leave first.

The convoy began to move again, this time a sterile-white hallway that seemed to stretch on for a good fifty yards. Jimmy glanced around the walls of the corridor, noticing slim, black rings that ran the entire length of the corridor as well as encircling them, creating a sort of portal for them to step through.

It took only a split-second for Jimmy to recognize the rings: UV radiation transmitters. It was no giant governmeny secret that ultraviolet radiation is put in everyday use; water purification plants and bottled water companies have been known to make use of UV radiation to purify the water, effectively killing or rendering harmless any possible bacteria or virus strands in the water. Many movies in Hollywood have also featured UV radiation scanners as a part of the decontamination process in the event of a viral outbreak, zombie or otherwise, that would effectively kill the virus.

That begged the question: Why are there UV radiation transmitters here?

As they walked closer and closer to what appeared to be a key-padded, retinal-scan, fingerprint-scan secured vault door, the reason jumped at Jimmy immediately. The only reason for UV radiation rings to be in what was probably the only entrance and exit to where ever they were going was because viral material was present in the area and no one wanted an unstoppable, homicidal pathogen roaming around what was probably an air-tight facility.

This confirmed Jimmy's worst fear. There was a biological weapon under production here. That was the project he had heard so much about since he had waken up in that dank and dreary cell. Glancing over at Cindy, he saw that she was still oblivious to what was going on. 'Well, not for long,' he mused gravely as they neared the vault-like door.

After the officer that had been escorting them bypassed the many security components of the door, the vault slid open with a hydraulic hiss like most of the other doors in the facility. Ahead of them was another corridor, a bleak, dimly-lit hallway that glowed a dark, ominous blue. They walked through the new corridor, the vault door closing behind them.

"Decontamination process initiated," a robotic voice announced. Cindy looked over at him worriedly. Jimmy grasped her hand to soothe her as the entire room hissed. A pale, white gas filtered into the room. Noticing that none of their escorts worried about breathing the gas in, Jimmy didn't bother holding his breath, and thus, neither did Cindy.

A moment later, the robotic voice rang out again. "Decontamination process complete. All contaminants neutralized. Proceed."

At the robotic voice's cue, the escorts began to move again, Jimmy and Cindy walking along with them. By now, the white gas had receded and the room looked as it had before. At the end of the corridor, there was only a simple hydraulic, passcode-protected door. Another code was inputed before the door slid open with a hiss.

The new room's blindingly white light shone into the dreary, poorly lit decontamination corridor they had just been in. Jimmy's nose detected the familiar, almost soothing and homey, odor of beakers, test tubes, sterilizers, and chemicals. A light, white fog, more like a thick most than anything else, coated the bottom of the floor, going up to knee height.

Suddenly, Jimmy felt a hand shove him forcefully through the threshold to the door and he landed with a grunt onto the metal grated floor. He looked up just in time to see Cindy fall forward at that same instance. He barely had enough time to kneel down to one knee and catch her, but the velocity of her fall and his unsteady stance forced them both to fall backwards. Jimmy glanced over at the door as it slid shut, the status light above the doorway flashing from green to red.

Unable to turn back, Jimmy and Cindy gave each other worried looks as they stood up and brushed themselves off. Then, after a moment of pause to check their surroundings, they proceeded into the room cautiously, looking with morbid fascination at the unlabeled vials of mysterious liquids, some green, some purple, some colorless, some bubbling, some with condensation on the class. The white glow cast off by the walls and ceilings gave an illusional concept of eternity as the rows and rows of chemical racks and beeping, blinking computer modules ran off in each direction.

"This must be his lab," Jimmy muttered to himself as he examined a rack of chemicals encased in what appeared to be a radiation-proofed glass box. The contents of all the vials bubbled violently, threatening to but never actually overflowing the lips of the vials. They gave off an unearthly red glow that radiated heat onto Jimmy's face as he leaned in closer towards the glass for a better look. The heat quickly intensified, making him both back away from the heat and feel slightly nauseous. As soon as he could no longer feel the heat, he was no longer felt sick.

"Whose lab?" Cindy asked, tearing the boy genius's attention away from the vials of mysterious liquid. Across the metal grated aisle from where he was inspecting the mysteriously hot chemicals, she had examined a similar case containing vials of clear liquid, condensation forming heavily along the outside of the glass test tubes as soft puffs of a pale, bluish-white smoke regularly flowed out of the top and pooled near the bottom of the case. Stalactites of ice hung down from the bottoms of the test tubes, drips of water sometimes falling from them.

"Mine." The two teenagers jumped for a moment before spinning around in unison. Metal boots clanked along the metal grating of the floor panels as a figure slowly descended down a set of stairs leading down from a raised platform that overlooked the bottom level. As Jimmy had correctly suspected, it was the lab of one Herr Doktor Professor Heinrich Franz Meir, Ph.D. The pale, gaunt faced man towered over both of the children at over six feet tall. What was left of his balding bleach blonde hair was swept back, leaving a valley of shiny, pale skin that brightly reflected the lighting from the ceiling lights. It apeared as if the doctor was in the middle of working when the two teenagers were thrown into his laboratory, judging from his neatly closed labcoat, black latex gloves, and the safety goggles place over his head, near his bald spot.

Cindy, having never gotten a very good look of the doctor before, inched nervously towards Jimmy. She was never one to be scared, but Professor Meir looked like a deranged mad scientists. He was almost skeletal in appearance due to his slim physique and his age caused the skin on his face to wrinkle and sag slightly, hinting around the bony area of his skull. Contrasting his half-dead appearance were his eyes, a pale, dull blue that glowed with an iciness not unlike that of the smoke that rose from the test tubes she had just examined.

Seeing Cindy so frightened didn't do well to please Jimmy who was aggravated as it was. He stepped up, hiding Cindy behind him in an almost protective gesture. "What is this place, Meir?" he demanded, gesturing around the room. "Nitrous oxide? Liquid nitrogen? What are all these things?"

Meir smiled grandely as if he were an old man whose little grandson had just shown keen interest in an old war memento of his. "Ah, I'm so glad that you have asked Mr. Neutron," he said slowly in his Low Rhenish German accent. He took a step forward, clearing the stair case. Then, his arms sprung open with dramatic flair as he gestured to the lab as a whole. "This," he stated proudly, "is the pinnacle of scientific achievement!What we are doing here will better all of mankind!"

Jimmy frowned and crossed his arms, unimpressed. He gave Meir a skeptical leer. "And let me guess. In order to better mankind, you expect me to help you destroy a good segment of the population."

The elderly German scientist scowled at him. "Watch your tongue, boy." He then closed his eyes briefly and nodded. "But yes. Sacrifices must be made in order to save humanity from the beast that it has become. But all of that will come in due time. First," he said, smiling with the enthusiasm of a small child and the heinous villany of Satan, "follow me. There is much to show you." His hand gripped the hand rail of the stairs as he began to walk back up the stairs.

Jimmy and Cindy shared a look. Finally, Jimmy nodded. "If we're going to have any chance of stopping him," he whispered over to her, "we'll need to play along."

Cindy nodded, although reluctantly. "Just being here just makes me sick," she stated flatly before starting up the stairs, Jimmy following closely behind.

They rounded up the stairs and stepped onto the rather low second floor, seperated from the first floor only by plexiglass barricades and steel beams underneath the platform that held up a good seven feet off of the ground. The first thing that they saw on the second floor was that above it was another floor, enclosed by a glass-like material, possibly a one-way mirror, that overlooked the entire facility. Jimmy assumed that this might be where Meir's main office and quarters were. Once he was free to move around, he made a mental note to try and scout the area out in search for a way out, schematics, alphabetized evil plans, anything that might help them.

Immediately in front of them and not ten feet from the stairs was a security door, much like the several others that they had passed through to get to the lab. On either side of the steel door were plexiglass barriers, condensation clouding them up to being virtually opaque. Meir walked over to the security door where a small orb hanging over the door threshold scanned an arcing red light across them, much like those found on price guns at supermarkets.

Suddenly, a voiced chimed in, obviously synthesized, and yet... Entirely too real. "Good morning, Professor Meir," a male robotic voice greeted in a monotone voice, reminiscent of Vox, something that irked Jimmy to absolutely no end. Suddenly, the serene bluish-white lights that had illuminated the room turned a bright, blaring red, casting a haunting blood-like visage across the room. "Warning. Warning," the voice declared in a slightly louder voice. "Two unidentified life forms detected."

Jimmy and Cindy looked at each other in panic. Then, they immediately turned around as they heard pistons and hydraulics setting off. From the pathway that they had traveled down to either side of the stair way, the floor parted and chrome-plated heated plasma turrets rose and took their places. Some even jutted down from the ceiling. All were aimed directly at the two teenagers. Then, the whir of turbines filled the lab as loudly as the roar of a hurricane as the turrets charged up to fire, their barrels and firing chambers glowing from a dull red to an increasingly brighter red.

"Computer!" Meir yelled out. "Override security protocols!" Suddenly, the turbines ceased and the glows of the turrets receded back to a dull red before becoming an inactive black, melding in with the color of the chrome turrets. Then, in a more calm voice, Meir said to the voice that had activated the security systems, "New Input: Recognize life forms NEUTRON, male, and VORTEX, female."

There was silence for a moment, which was fine by Jimmy and Cindy who were attempting to regain their composure. It wasn't often, after all, that teenagers were held at gunpoint by at least twenty eight turrets, one of which would've been sufficient to vaporize their atoms into sheer nothingness. Cindy tightly gripped Jimmy's hand and stood very closely to him, who in return held tightly onto her. Then, they looked at each other and caught Meir staring bemusedly at them. They cleared their throats and stepped slightly away from each other. Meir rolled his eyes.

The synthetic voice then chimed over the PA system of the lab once again. "Input received. Protocol logged. Life forms Neutron and Vortex acknowledged. Good morning, Professor Meir, Mr. Neutron, and Ms. Vortex."

Professor Meir simply nodded in calm acceptance of the amended security protocols. The security door then slid open, revealing another long hallway, this one bordered on either side by plexiglass cases similar to ones Jimmy had seen at military and commercial testing sites where test animals were used as subjects. This deeply troubled him on the implications of Meir's work. Cindy realized this as well and frowned slightly, coming to the same conclusion that Jimmy had: whatever Meir was doing couldn't possibly be good and if animals were being involved, that meant that humans were a very likely target for the end product.

Typically, rhesus monkeys were used because of their near identical biological make up to humans. Their DNA, skeletal and muscular structure, and even some aspects of their thought processes were a neary identical, if not scaled down, match to humans'. They were typically used by commercial and pharmaceutical companies to see if their products or drugs would negatively affect humans and the military, although they loathed to admit it, occasionally performed these tests as well whenever a new epidemic or virus seems on the rise and it is necessary to perform unsavory tests in order to see if humans are affected and if they are, if there is a way to stop them.

Of course, that meant that these monkeys could be used the other way around, with a virus introduced to their bodies to see how effective the virus was and how quickly it could kill. Experiments such as that were usually myths of science fiction literature, but... After leading a ragtag space fleet of improvised craft, fighting alien eggs, mad scientists, and space bandits, being a part of an intergalactic game show, and saving the world from countless disasters, natural or otherwise, Jimmy Neutron had long learned to never doubt the existence of any world-threatening event. Especially when it sounded like something from science fiction literature.

As they walked down the hallway, Jimmy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It felt as if eyes were following them and glancing to his side, he could tell that Cindy felt it as well. He glanced at the plexiglass boxes to his left, carefully examining them. Because of the heavy condensation that fogged up the glass surface of each box, he was unable to see clearly whatever it was on the inside. Not noticing that Professor Meir had stopped as well and was now watching them in almost gleeful apprehension, he approached one of the boxes slowly.

He pressed his face against the box in an attempt to see clearer into the box. When that failed, he began to try and wipe off his side's condensation, using his palm to make a small circle to look into.

Two smaller hands touched the other side of the glass and a ghastly, mangled face pressed itself against the glass.

Jimmy reeled backwards and fell onto his rear, his back against the other wall.

Cindy screamed.

Meir laughed.

The hands were small and nearly skeletal, no bigger than that of a six-year-old human's. The bones could be scene supporting the sagging, wrinkled skin and bloody blisters stretched across the palms. The face was another horror altogether. The skin was stretched back and it was as if Jimmy were staring at a skull. There was no life in the eyes, just a blank whiteness. There were no pupils evident, the nose had almost shriveled from non-existence, and its lips were bared, showing its vicious row of feral teeth.

And then, the beast let out a shrill cry that arose all others in the hallf. One anguished, haunting howl went out only to be joined with an undead chorus eminating from the other boxes in the hall. It was a mix between a human's scream before imminent demise and that of a wild ape about to attack. Glancing around, Jimmy saw as more of the hideous monstrosities pressed their own faces up against their boxes, banging hard against them in an attempt to break free. Their faces didn't even show any anger, just indescribable pain fueled by animalistic instincts that demanded freedom from their captivity.

Finally able to shake himself out of his horrified trance, Jimmy's arms numbly wrapped around Cindy's who, having already been afraid of monkeys prior, was now burying her head into his chest, screaming as loudly as the disfigured former primates around them were. Jimmy then glared up at Meir who merely laughed and looked almost fondly at the surrounding terror with an air of nonchalance.

"What are these things? What did you do to them?" Jimmy demanded angrily as he tried to stagger up to his feet, pulling Cindy up with him.

Meir's bellowing laughter erupted even further into sheer hysterics as he continued down the hall in a very upbeat mood. As he passed, the deformed mutant apes grew increasingly more violent and angry. Not receiving an immediate answer, Jimmy gritted his teeth and pulled Cindy up to her feet. The blonde refused to look anywhere anymore, not while they were in this wretched hallway. She closed her eyes and clung tightly to Jimmy's arm. Jimmy, meanwhile, tried to look directly at Meir's back and nowhere else. He could feel his breathing become erratic, with his inhales sharp and his exhales shaky.

The howls and cries of the animals began to quiet down as they headed towards the end of the hallway, save for the ones in the boxes around Meir, anyways. As he began to punch in the passcode for the door directly in front of them, he called out almost jovially to the two rattled teenagers. "These monkeys are sacrifices for the greatest good of them all!" His voice was cheerful and high-spirited, much unlike his usual cutting Low Rhenish drawl.

"And what might that good be?" Jimmy asked through gritted teeth as he and Cindy shambled closely behind him. "What good could possibly come out of the torture of these monkeys? Just what did you even do to them?"

Before Meir could answer, if he had even planned to, the door before them slid open with the familiar hiss of hydraulics and the steel door slid aside. The set-up in the room before them was more familiar to Jimmy; it was like his own lab, with a large, multi-functional supercomputer situated before a grand control chair, several testing tables, a decontamination area for dangerous chemicals, filing cabinets, and other miscellaneous scientific paraphenlia. These were obviously his personal quarters as well, as indicated by the small kitchenette area and military cot that sat beside it. Curiously, however, there was an examination table with an autopsy table directly beside it.

Once Jimmy and Cindy had entered the smaller laboratory, the door automatically slid shut behind them. Meir yawned boredly and walked over to the chair where he undid the buttons to his labcoat and discarded it, draping it over the back of his chair.

And there he stood in the dimly-lit laboratory. His robust, lint-free, stark black SS uniform blended in with the sinister atmosphere of the laboratory. Although Cindy was surprised and had let out a small gasp upon seeing the archaic uniform, a near synonymous image for pure human evil in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Jimmy wasn't.

Earlier, he hadn't been able to establish a scientific connection about Meir. There were no case-studies, experiments, theories, or books published under his name. The uniform made him realize he had been barking up the wrongest tree there was. He wasn't looking at a benevelolent scientist gone bad. He was looking at a bad scientist that should have been dead decades ago if the Allies had caught up to him.

Heinrich Franz Meir, Ph.d, graduate of Munich University, and eighty-nine year old war criminal, or at least he would have been, if he hadn't have escaped somehow or, rather, killed by Allied artillery as rare documentation put it. Although he was clearly alive, he had been reported killed in action during the Russian bombarment of Berlin during World War II. The exact details were sketchy, but he was known to have been one of the many assosciates and apprentices of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Now it all became clear to him. These experiments, these poor test subjects, they were all akin to the experiments Dr. Mengele had performed on the Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp, especially in the sheer disregard in ethical protocol. Upon realizing just who their new 'friend' was, Jimmy scowled at the elderly man.

"Now I know who you are," he growled aggressively at the man. Meir smirked back at him, coming to the conclusion that Jimmy now realized who he truely was.

"Nazi war criminal, lackey of Josef Mengele, scourge of the scientific community," Jimmy accused as he moved away from Cindy and advanced towards Meir who merely stood his grown and stared down his nose at the much younger man. "Supposedly dead because of Russian artillery, an exiled German SS officer, and now the latest threat to humanity."

"Jawohl, Mr. Neutron," Meir applauded as he glared down at the shorter man, who now glared back with unbridled intensity. With dramatic flair, he bowed mockingly to Jimmy. "I'm honored to be known by you," he lauded with great sarcasm. "Now that the pleasantries have been properly exchanged, allow me to get us right to business, as you say."

The elderly German brushed past Jimmy who bristled slightly. Soon, a manila folder was retrieved from a file cabinet and was handed over to Jimmy. Staring cautiously at the former SS officer, Jimmy then slowly opened the folder and began to examine its contents with Cindy hanging over his shoulder.

* * *

**Holy crap that took a long time. First and foremost, I sincerely apologize to all of my readers and reviewers who have waited so long for this and thank them for their patience. I've been buried in schoolwork and other miscellaneous drama that I've had to sort out, and that's kept me from finishing this chapter. Hopefully, I can work on it more, but no real promises.**

**I would like to give special thanks especially to my reviewers, you all know who you are. I'll be sure to give credit to each and every single one of my reviewers at the very end of this story (once it ends), so please, keep them coming and hope to hear from a lot more of you soon. **

**As a special type of request, I am open to any kind of suggestion that any of you may have as far as the story goes. I have a rough general sketch on this story's plot, but it is very open to ideas. Keep in mind that I can and sometimes will reject certain story ideas if they contradicted more solid plot elements I already had in mind, but other than that, I'm free to suggestions.**

**In closing, I once again appreciate your loyalty and patience and hope that you can bear with me as I try and get the next chapter underway. I apologize for the rather short, comparative length and the perhaps crappy writing on my part near the end.**

**Sincerely, **

**Management.**


	7. Ragnarok

**Could it be? Yes, Biohazard is back and so am I! I'd like to thank everyone who's urged me to go on with the story and those of you who have reviewed in the past. I'll try my best to stay encouraged in writing this story and will try to see this thing to the finish. Special thanks will be given at the end of this chapter. And now, for the long-awaited seventh chapter.**

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Ragnarok**

**

* * *

**

Ragnarok. It was one of the first words on the document, but out of all the other words in the three page document handed over to him by Professor Meir, it stuck out the most. At first, it gave him pause, and it made him stop reading just so he could pull out from his vast memory banks just why the word would even be present in a scientific document in the first place. By the time that his mind was able to comb his vast, encyclopedic mind thoroughly enough to find just what it was, Jimmy could feel his skin grow as cold as ice. And he still had the rest of the document to read over.

His vast archive of knowledge stopped short where religions were concerned, but he still had a much greater grasp of many religions than most other people did. For now, he had to rely on what little he knew about Norse mythology. It was enough. Ragnarok, an archaic Nordic word that translated loosely to the _'final destiny of the gods.' _As far as parallels could be drawn, Ragnarok was the Nordic version of the Christian rapture, where a new world would spawn in the place of the old which would lie in ashes.

It was the story that defined Ragnarok which disturbed Jimmy the most. According to the ancient Nordic text _Völuspá_, Ragnarok, like the Christian rapture, was a chain of events, starting first with the crowing of three roosters and then, all Hell would break loose. On Earth, man would fight against man and "whoredom" would reign supreme. There would be chaos, death and destruction, where swords and shields would clash.

And then, the gods themselves would erupt into open warfare. It was prophesized that many of the gods would die in the battle, and that the battle itself would devastate the world as man knew it so much that there would be only two humans left on the world and only a handful of the gods that entered the battle would come out alive. But there is a happy ending to the tragic end of the world in that the two humans survivors that escaped the mayhem would then repopulate the Earth, now refreshed and renewed in all its beauty and splendor. It would be a perfect, new world.

And that was what gave Jimmy the chills. When he had finally finished reading the manila folder document, his lips were too dry to speak. The second he saw the two-word name of the sinister demon that Professor Meir had spawned, Jimmy felt as if he was the one that had contracted the virus.

_Ebola Ragnarok._

By themselves, the two words could send a slight chill up a person's spine. One was the Nordic word for what was essentially Armageddon. The other was a highly lethal, extremely fatal, and exceptionally dangerous genus of virus known officially as _ebolavirus_. There are five officially recognized strains, last Jimmy checked, but now, it seemed there might be six.

Although differing in origin background and severity as well as insured fatality, all strains of the ebola virus worked the same. Essentially, what the viruses did were attack the interior lining of blood vessels and interfere in the process of coagulation, which would be the body's natural process of forming clots to prevent excessive bleeding. By first damaging the blood vessels and then interfering in coagulation, it allowed for excessive bleeding, which would cause bruise-like blemishes to appear all around the body. Eventually, the victim would essentially go into hypovolemic shock, bleed out, and die.

Ebola Ragnarok it seemed, was going to be ten times worse.

Quite simply, it seemed to be a stronger, scientifically refined, and more sinister virus than its five brethren. Where the other five were naturally occurring, according to the lab reports, Meir was able to take the deadly Ebola Zaire strain, which had a ninety percent fatality rate at its worst, and transformed it into a biochemical weapon of mass destruction whose intent wasn't simply death. According to the lab reports that were in Jimmy's hands, the Ragnarok strain was not intended to kill. Instead, it attacked the blood vessels in a way that it would induce the adrenal glands to produce more adrenaline, as if the body was aware that it was about to die while the mind remained blissfully unaware. The high amounts of adrenaline coarsing through the bloodstream supercharged the muscular and skeletal systems of the body while the damaged blood vessels summoned more and more blood to be channeled to specific parts of the body such as the heart, the lungs, and all major muscular systems, as if to lure the adrenaline towards them in an effort to strengthen the body almost permanently.

The process also resulted in the reversion of the mind into an almost primal state of dire hostility. The so-called Friend-Or-Foe switch in the mind was shut off. The mind allowed the body to do what it will and so, with so much adrenal energy coursing through its corrupted veins, the only reasonable thing for it to do was to attack, kill, maim, and destroy anything within its field of vision.

Jimmy's white-knuckled grip on the manila folder grew lax and the document holding such a vile, evil scheme fluttered down to the floor. Stumbling backwards, he bumped into Cindy whose hands prevented him from falling over backwards. The blonde had tried her best to read the document along with him, but her grasp on the situation was paled by the scenarios running in Jimmy's mind on what the potential this new strain of _ebolavirus _had to destroy mankind. Or enslave it.

She could read science better than most of her peers, but much of the terminology in the document went well over her head. She was well aware of what the Ebola virus was. It was a virus that killed a lot of people and first appeared somewhere in Africa, presumably in a place called Zaire which was what the very first occurrence was called. She had a scant bit of knowledge pertaining to what Ragnarok was, considering her Scandinavian Gram-Gram on her father's side would always regale her with silly little stories about the culture from'the old country.' Now, she was wishing that she had paid more attention to her Gram-Gram, and not just because she passed away after killing a rampaging moose with her bare hands on a trip to her childhood home. From that day on, the Vortex family swore a vendetta against the Happy Jim's Packaged Peanuts Company.

The rest of the document ultimately was lost on her. There were too many numbers that didn't make sense, too many complex words that even most college graduates had never seen before, and so many chemical names and compounds that for a moment she thought she was back in high school chemistry class. She had no choice but to leave it to Big Brain to explain things to her, if he can ever calm himself down enough to, that is.

Confused and also surprised at the boy's reaction and subsequent loss of balance, Cindy gasped as she caught him, "Jimmy, what's wrong?"

At seeing Jimmy's breathless and terrified face, Professor Meir took the time to laugh heartily as he stooped down to gingerly pick the document up from off of the floor. "Ze dear boy has just come to terms with the fate of this wretched world. Scientists like he and I will call officially know it as Ebola Ragnarok. Your friend Herr General prefers to call it Agent Fire. But me? I like to call it my masterpiece."

With every word uttered by the mad scientist before them, Jimmy was able to grasp a little bit more energy and eventually steadied himself back on his own two feet. "It's an abomination, that's what it is, and so are you!" he yelled angrily at him, his jaw set and his fists clenched as if ready to strike. Never before had Cindy ever seen Jimmy this angry, and she could only assume that it was pertaining to whatever was in that document.

Meir's eyes narrowed as he glared at Jimmy. He set that document down against the counter top beside him before taking an aggressive step towards them both. "Nein!" he seethed through gritted teeth, his aged voice bellowing throughout the laboratory office like a thunderous strike of Thor's mighty hammer. Both of the two teenagers jolted slightly with a start. "It is no abomination! It, Herr Neutron, is the start of a new world. It will be my world. The General will simply be allowed to run it, but in reality, it is my dream. Mein! You understand! Mein!"

He turned away from them and faced towards the computers taking up a large amount of the wall area in the room. "My dream is to create a new world. A superior world. Since the fall of the Reich and my exile, I've watched as my fellow humans have degenerated into filth. Such debauchery, such ludicracy. It's as if the entire world were written by lonely teenagers, or worse, lonely teenagers who are Hellbent on pitting two unlikely members of their favorite television program together at all costs. Such insanity. It pains my heart as a man of science to see the human race deteriorate so."

His hands descended down on the keyboards and began to type away at the commands, his attention on the children now seemingly non-existent. Seizing the gap to figure out what was going on exactly, Cindy glanced over at Jimmy. "What's going on, Neutron? What was that file all about? I kept seeing something about ebola."

Jimmy shook his head and sighed, though his eyes never left the professor's white-cloacked backside. "You were right about one thing. Ebola is involved," he whispered softly. "A new version. Ebola Ragnarok he called it."

Before he was able to continue, Meir picked up for Jimmy. "My brain child," he drew out proudly as the computer began to show various images of trajectory projections and other miscellaneous read-outs. He turned back around to face them, his outline shadowed by the bright glow of the greens, blues, reds, and flashing whites of the computer monitor behind him. "It is the ultimate virus, perfected by human hands, aimed to perfect human society."

"It was simple, really. Take all the powerful ebola viruses into a lab. Take the most applicable and desirable parts of their genetic make-ups, such as transmission via air, touch, water, and the ability to withstand high temperatures. In fact, the only temperatures high enough to effectively neutralize the virus are ones such as the one emitted from the lava in the volcano we are now in."

Jimmy's eyes widened, for two reasons. First, now he knew what there exact location was at least. The volcano in the middle of the island seemed a bit cliche for an evil lair, but to stay undetected by passing military reconnaissance planes and ships as well as curious explorers, it was perfect. The rock would be too dense to detect anything through, and the heat emitted from the volcano's innards would throw off any attempts for an accurate infared scan. Having it low enough into the crust for molten magma to surround it was a step further, but a necessary one. The facility was more than likely a closed one, and an accidental infectious spill could spell catastrophe for their entire operation.

The second reason his eyes widened was the implications such drastic temperatures would mean for disposing of the virus. If released into the world, no government had the capacity to stop it. Typically, ultraviolet rays could be used to try and neutralize the virus, but even then, the effects were negligible from virus to virus and surely Meir had designed in its genomes a way to combat UV rays.

There was only one question left to ask. "Why?" he croaked slowly, questions swirling around his head. "Why make a virus this powerful?"

Cindy soon chimed in. "Yeah, why bother making a virus to kill people if you want to make a new world order? Wouldn't it just defeat the purpose?" she asked, unaware of the virus' true sinister colors.

Jimmy was quick to inform her. "He's not trying to kill them, Cindy," he said through gritted teeth as he maintained his steady steely glare at the German scientist before them. "It turns you into a monster, like those monkeys we just saw. It floods your system and turns on a permanent adrenaline pump in your body, and it attacks your central nervous system, making you forget who and what not to attack." Before Cindy could tell him to 'just say it in English, Nerdtron' Jimmy quickly reiterated, "Uh, basically, it makes you a blood-thirsty zombie."

With dramatic applause, Meir laughed and clapped his hands jovially. "Very good, Mr. Neutron! It seems as if you are as they say, a very bright child. For a moment, I wondered whether or not you would be able to comprehend the true genius behind such a grand creation. Still," he then started with a slightly nonchalant tone, "it begs the question: Why fill the Earth with, as you say, blood-thirsty zombies. What purpose would the new world order want with a bunch of wild, killing machines? Well. The answer is simple. They're easier to control."

"Ebola Ragnarok is known by another name, Agent Fire, as I believe I've already said. It is only half of the grand scheme to create the supreme human race. One that is infalliable. You see, Agent Fire, as you correctly deduced, turns off the inhibitive portions of the mind, those pesky little things called morals. Without that all-important factor, humans are just bipedal mammals. For the first month after Day Zero is commenced, humanity will trim its numbers so that only the strongest and the fastest are alive. Those that are inferior specimens will, of course perish. As nature intended. And then, the plan is to fix them."

"Fix them?" the two teens both murmured softly in unison, the concept seeming too foreign for the situation.

Meir nodded slowly. "Yes, fix them. Herr General has no use for primitive barbarians such as what mankind will be reduced to after Day Zero. So, the second phase of our master plan is to create an antidote to be released that will reverse most of the effects of the virus."

Jimmy took a step forward in a challenging gesture. His chestnut eyes and heavy brows set themselves into a harsh glare as they locked onto Meir. "Let me guess. By most, you mean cure everything that makes them a threat to you and your new world order while leaving them as brainless slaves to do your bidding?"

"Very good, Mr. Neutron! I must say, I am rather impressed," Meir praised with sarcastic enthusiasm. "But you are correct. I expected no less." He turned his back to them to stare at the computer screens behind him. That is why you are here. I've created the catalyst. Now, you will help me create the antidote."

Taking a step forward so that now she was right beside Jimmy, Cindy barked out with a violent fist gesturing towards Professor Meir, "And what if he doesn't? Your plan kinda falls apart at that point, doesn't it?" Jimmy stiffened suddenly. Apparently, Cindy hadn't been given the same talk the nameless leader of this entire inane operation had given to Jimmy.

Meir shrugged. "Very true. I suppose you do have a very good point. Fortunately, I hold the Queen of Hearts," he stated flatly before reaching down to the holster by his side and drawing his Luger pistol, the standard-issued sidearm for the Third Reich's soldiers back in World War Two. Leveling the weapon towards Cindy, he added with a cocky smirk, "Or rather, the Queen to his Heart." Laughing softly to himself at what he believed was a clever joke, his hand reached below a nearby desk and pressed a small emergency button. Suffice to say, neither of them found his little joke very funny.

"So, you have two choices, then, Herr Neutron," Meir drew out with dramatic flair as he motioned with his hand carelessly pointing his handgun here and there, causing both of them to stiffen slightly whenever the barrel of the Luger came their way. It wasn't so much that the old man was pointing the gun at them as much as it was that the old man's bony finger seemed to rest ever so nonchalantly on it, ready to squeeze at a moment's notice.

"If you help me, the two of you will have a secure future in the new world order. Perhaps Herr General will be so kind as to ensure that your families will not come to harm, and you may all thrive and flourish in the new world borne from the ashes."

"But if you refuse..." Meir's thumb flicked the safety off his Luger and leveled it at a certain kill shot, were he to take it; Cindy's heart. "The girl dies. And then..." Meir shrugged as the faint sound of a security checkpoint being cleared rang from the other side of the hallway. "Well, to be honest, we haven't discussed it too thoroughly at that point. You see, your cooperation isn't necessary. It will only shorten the amount of time it would take until our master plan comes to fruition. The world's fate is inevitable. The fraulein's, on the other hand, is entirely up to you."

Jimmy gritted his teeth in anger as he glared at the arrogant rogue scientist standing before him, a pistol gripped leisurely in his right hand and a Cheshire grin plastered across his face. They, whoever it was again that _they_ even were, had corralled him into a damned-if-he-did, damned-if-he-didn't situation. If he agreed, the world was doomed. If he didn't, the world was doomed, and Cindy was dead.

Before he had a chance to respond to Meir's offer, the door leading out from the hallway of horrors that contained the plexiglass boxes of infected rhesus monkeys parted, allowing four men to rush into the room, led by the same officer that had led them down to the lab from before. Summoned by the alert that the emergency button underneath Meir's desk gave off, their boots clanked along the metal grating floor, a thunderous sound amidst the silence of the machinery softly whirring around them. Four rifle barrels found themselves aimed at the two adolescents.

The officer stepped ahead of his men, glancing only slightly at Jimmy and Cindy for a brief moment before snapping a brisk salute to Meir. "Professor," he greeted crisply as his heels clicked in apt attention. "I trust that these delightful children haven't giving you any trouble at all."

Professor Meir glanced over at the two before chuckling lightly. The sound was more haunting than the sounds of the infected animals that led into the man's quarters/private laboratory. "They were very... Cooperative, Major." Looking over the officer's shoulder briefly, he called out, "Think about my offer, Mr. Neutron. Think very, carefully..." Meir then fixed his gaze back on the major that had led them down to the lab in the first place. "Take Mr. Neutron and Ms. Vortex back to their quarters. I'm sure they have much to discuss."

The soldiers following the major in took that as their cue to begin prodding the two adolescents to get them moving. Two soldiers took point, leading them down the hallway as two others pushed them forward from the rear. After waiting a moment, the major and the scientist followed the entourage down the hallway. The cacophonous sound of the infected primates howling at them deafened their senses.

Ignoring the screeches of mixed agony and rage, the major turned his head to look at Meir. "Professor... What are the chances you believe that that Neutron fellow will-" His question was cut short by the face of a deformed Rhesus monkeys snarling against the glass, pounding at it with bony, skeletal hands. The major took a sharp intake of breath before clearing his throat, carefully regaining his composure. "That, uh... How likely is it that Mr. Neutron will agree to aid us in our cause?"

Meir laughed lightly at the dark-haired man's troubled expression and demeanor after an encounter with a piece of evidence of his stunning, if not macabre, brilliance. His dull blue eyes shone with an icy spark as he looked at the two teenagers being led at gun-point. "He doesn't have a choice."

* * *

"What do you mean you don't have a choice?"

Cindy stared at the boy sitting across the room from her on the other bed of the room. The guards had led them back into the room that Jimmy had regained consciousness in earlier that day. While they were gone in Professor Meir's lab, it seemed as if the base staff had repaired the destruction Cindy's earlier outburst of frustration had caused. With its bare, metal walls, two beds, single window, and single, not-destroyed nightstand complete with shaded lamp, it was all but clear that their captors wanted them to feel as... homey as possible.

From on his bed, Jimmy could only stare down at his own hands, clasped in a frustrated lock. Whoever this 'General' was, he had all the inner-workings of an evil genius. A true evil genius. This man was on a level ten times greater than any other foe Jimmy and his friends had ever went up against. Professor Calamitous was a genius, but he was an idiot nonetheless. The Yolkians were aliens with superior technology, but they lacked the common sense and foresight to prevent a gang of children from over running them, stealing a capital ship, and flying off. Come to think of it, all of Jimmy's former enemies (former in the pretense that almost all of them are currently either incarcerated, reformed, or have somewhat retired from evil doing) were cartoonish butt monkeys for Jimmy to thrash on an almost weekly basis.

This man was different. Twice had the point been made to him that if he were to refuse to help their 'cause,' Cindy would be killed and he would be deliberately left alive to suffer the consequences. There were armed guards patrolling the area, very strong armed guards if Jimmy's still healing abdomen had any say in it, and the base was situated well into the Earth's crust, surrounded by molten hot lava. Escape was going to be impossible. Refusal to cooperate was both unacceptable and futile as it did nothing.

"Jimmy?"

There has to be a way. There was always a way, no matter what. But how? Jimmy just couldn't wrap his head around it. It was all so flawless. So perfect! They couldn't leave, they couldn't escape, they couldn't do anything but help him. And if Jimmy refused, Cindy... No, he couldn't refuse. The fate of the world couldn't even consider it; reverse engineering a virus wasn't very difficult if you're the evil genius that made it in the first place, and Jimmy had not a doubt in his mind that Meir could do it. They weren't bluffing. All Jimmy was to them was something to speed things up a bit.

"Uh... Are you even listening to me?"

No, there had to be a way. There had to be. 'Come on, Neutron, think... think... think!' He had to think back. That was always the trick before. There had to be some flaw, there was always a flaw, especially in the failsafe measures that plans attempted to implement. Disaster loved irony, apparently. Let's see... The base was in lava. Lava. Lave everywhere. And Meir said that only lava could neutralize the virus. Wait. Yes... Of course!

"Neutron! Say something! You are really starting to tick me off!"

The lava, it was the key. If there was an outbreak for whatever reason, the section would have to be able to be closed off, like how a ship would do so to prevent a fire from spreading if it were to creep under deck. With the infected portion of the base sealed off, there would have to be a type of control mechanism that would allow the section to be exposed to the lava. Once the lava crept in, the infection would be neutralized, the lava would somehow be disposed of, and the section would be reopened, repaired, and then allowed for maintenance. How the lava would be disposed of wasn't Jimmy's primary concern.

"Nerdtron! I am going to give you until the count of three to snap out of that stupid little look you got before I- Why are you smiling? Neutron? Stop smiling! You're creeping me out! Stop-"

His concern was 1) Finding that release mechanism and 2) Finding a way out. The hovercar. His hovercar had to be somewhere around the base! There was no way they could have destroyed, at least not this soon. Never had he thank the Powers that Be for his incredible foresight so much! He knew one of these days building a hovercar that could resist the heat of a planet's molten core would come in handy!

It had finally hit him. Uh, Cindy's hand, not his ingenious plan to get them out of this and save the world.

Jimmy's enthusiasm and lifted spirits would not be deterred by Cindy's steely hand of pain. At least not immediately. As soon as Cindy's hand made contact with his face, he stared blankly to the side before gleaming brightly at her. "Cindy, I got it!" His hands cupped Cindy's cheeks as the blonde stared at him, terrified by this sudden change in mood and disposition. Oh dear. She'd finally hit the poor boy too hard.

The pain eventually set in and immediately after Jimmy attempted to further elaborate with a, "I know how to get out of this!," the poor genius grabbed his slightly red cheek and let out a pained, "Ow!" He gave Cindy an accusative glare which she returned with a sheepish smile. "What was that for?"

"Uh, because you zoned out for like five minutes and started smiling which, uh... Is really, really creepy."

"I was having a brain blast!"

Cindy blinked. "This isn't going to make things worse like they always do, is it?" she asked with a deadpan expression on her face.

He hurriedly shook his head. "Nope, it's going to save the world, like they always do." He added the last part with an annoyed look at Cindy.

Rolling her eyes in a manner that clearly voiced her doubt on how valid his claim was, she sat down next to him on the bed. "So what's the plan, Neutron?"

* * *

**Alright, a lot shorter than I would have hoped, but I didn't want to put too much into one chapter. Plus, I also wanted to see how many people were still interested after my abrupt hiatus. Again, I'm really sorry about that, and I'll try to keep a bit more interest in this story. That being said, I'll do my best to try and put out a new update as soon as I can, but with the Texas summer being what it is and me needing to help around to keep things cool, it may be a little while before you see chapter eight.**

**Thank you all again for those who read this and especially those who have replied and expressed your interest in this story. A special thanks to all of you who have PMed me to give me some help and advice to put out this chapter!**


	8. A Plan In Motion

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Jimmy Neutron in any way, shape, or form in this or alternate dimensions past, present, or future. Ever. Got it? Good. I can't afford a lawyer. If I could, I doubt I'd be writing fanfictions with my spare time.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**A Plan In Motion**

* * *

Cindy had to admit, it was a brilliant plan, much like any of Jimmy's other plans that actually worked. It was a type of Trojan horse plan, now that she thought about it; under the guise of cooperation, they would begin to slowly sabotage whatever they could concerning the base, the personnel, and of course, the devious Ebola Ragnarok virus itself. While they sabotaged whatever they could without getting caught, they would either snoop around and look for the layouts of the base itself, or try and befriend some of the staff so that they could determine just where the hovercar and the all-important infection management systems were located. Those were the two pinnacle factors of their escape plan and would spell either success and survival for the two teenage Texans or failure and death.

A lot of subtlety was going to be necessary for nearly all aspects of the plan. If their plan was somehow discovered by any of the base staff, if their sabotage attempts were somehow detected, or if Meir or the mysterious, enigmatic military mastermind backing the entire operation known simply as the General somehow even suspected that they were not cooperating with them in the fullest... The consequences would be dire.

She knew what would happen to her if they failed. They would kill her, plain and simple. It wasn't a way that the blonde teenager had ever thought as to how she would finally go. Sure, there were the numerous close calls with the League of Villains and all of Jimmy's other assorted enemies over the years, but never had the reality of her own mortality been so clear. These weren't silly men in pajamas floating around like they were on movie wires. Meir wasn't an insane, incredibly short, and incredibly bald mad scientist that couldn't complete anything. And unless he was really wearing a very clever disguise, she highly doubted that that the General was really an exiled former king of Yolkus.

No, if they failed, if they were found out, she knew she would die and the world would be doomed. But if she didn't try, she would be alive, the world would still be doomed, and she'd have to live with the knowledge that she did nothing to stop the rapture. So failure, in any case, was not an option because if there were two things that Cynthia Aurora Vortex refused to allow was her own death at the hands of megalomaniac nut jobs and the end of the world. She was not afraid of death. If they failed, they all might as well have been dead.

Jimmy, on the other hand, didn't exactly share her fierce determination and steely resolve. In many ways, he was secretly hoping to just curl up in a ball and wish that the world would disappear, at least for a moment. For once, it was an opposite situation than what the two American teenagers were usually used to. Cindy was all for his plan and outwardly, so was he, but there were far too many risks for him to even count.

First and foremost, while Cindy seemed to be completely at ease about the possibility of her own death, Jimmy couldn't help but feel rattled by the prospect. This was Cindy, he was talking about. Strong, brave, resilient Cindy, puncher of bad guys, tenth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and one of the most violent girl's he had ever met other than April the Gorlock. Then again, April was an alien whose entire racial culture celebrated war, battle, and bloodshed. Cindy was just born that way.

Yet the threats on her life that both the General and Meir promised would come to her made her seem so... vulnerable in his eyes, now. Even now, as they rode the lift back down presumably towards Meir's lab, he couldn't help but imagine an invisible horde of death bringers ready to drag her down into the underworld. He had none of his fancy technology this time around; they'd been careful to confiscate him of everything once they had arrived, his watch included. They were sure to be closely monitored at least to a point where he couldn't hope to build himself another one from the plentiful resources around. Caution was the key and if they failed at that... Cindy was gone from his life forever, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Countless times in the past, he had put his life, her life, and the lives of his friends and families in perpetual danger, all because of his childish scientific ventures. It wasn't until he had reached at least middle school that he realized that sometimes, there were instances when the pursuit of science just wasn't worth it, and instead of trying to create the ultimate brain washing candy, he settled for simpler things, such as improving his book gum designs, toying with automatic translation devices, and seeing if Goddard would like having a lady friend to occupy him on Friday family nights. No more putting his friends' lives in danger, at least not on his own anyways. Naturally, old wounds never really heal and his old enemies, somehow having found their way out of the Cretaceous Era, have periodically gone after him from time to time.

Even Professor's Calamitous' latest attempt on his and Cindy's lives wasn't as dire as the situation they found themselves in now. Roughly a year ago, Calamitous had broken out of jail with the help of his daughter and new, alien son-in-law. Using the tractor beam on the Junk Man's ship, their nefarious scheme this time around was to use the beam to alter the trajectory of an upcoming meteor shower so that the meteors would land all across Retroville. Naturally, Jimmy didn't care much for the plan and he set forth to put an end to their scheme.

Cindy tagged along.

Okay, actually, she stole one of his many prototype rockets and followed him into the meteor shower racing down towards Retroville.

A long story short, after much radio frequency argument and name-calling, it was agreed that Cindy would make sure no asteroids ever made it to Retroville while Jimmy disabled the tractor beam. Cindy was successful on her end, for the most part, and by the time that Jimmy fired a lucky phaser blast into the tractor beam's drive core which led to a subsequent reversal of the beam, almost all of the asteroids had been destroyed. Jimmy raced away from the Junk Man's fiery, broken down ship as it limped away in defeat. He soon found that Cindy's rocket was suffering a severe design flaw (which was not his fault, by the way, since there was a reason it was still a prototype) and was barreling towards the last, remaining asteroid, and it was a big one. A leap of faith was all that it took to save Cindy from impending doom as she jumped from her cockpit into that of his larger, more stable rocket.

No, racing against time and flying rocks burning up in the Earth's atmosphere was somehow less dangerous than what they faced right now. Before, it was just so surreal that their demise at the hands of asteroids seemed laughable. But Jimmy had seen the cold blued steel of the gun barrel that Meir had pointed at her face. It made his blood both hot with anger and cold with fear at the same time, something that he had never felt as strongly when fighting against any other villain. This time, it seemed as if it really could happen. And if he failed, it would.

Snapping out of his thoughts to derail the discouraging line of thought he found himself following, he glanced over at the strong-willed blonde as her hazel eyes glanced around the elevator shaft, rocking back and forth almost boredly on the balls of her feet as the lift made its slow descent downwards towards Meir's lab. 'Why isn't she more afraid?' he pondered thoughtfully. Her life could be in danger if they failed. And yet, she seemed as if she were waiting for the escalator at the mall to take her to the floor where her and Libby's favorite shop was located.

A high-pitched, angry voice from the deepest recesses of his mind viciously berated him for allowing his train of thought to wander as it had. The more and more Jimmy listened to it, the more he could feel himself calming down. Now was not the time to think about failure. It just was not an option. The fate of the world rested in his hands. Cindy Vortex's very life rested in his hands. He couldn't fail either of them. He had to succeed... He just had to...

* * *

They were slightly surprised when they hadn't been taken directly towards Meir's lab, where it seemed as if the most critical aspects of the project would be held. Instead, they were taken to another portion of the subterranean, volcanic base. It was a vast metropolis of computers, dashboards, and test tubes small and extremely oversized. A city of scientists trekked here and there on levitating anti-grav scooters, a scientific novelty that more than irked Jimmy; it seemed, then, that he now wasn't the only one to have cracked the secrets of hover transport technology. For a scant moment, he had hoped that their knowledge of anti-grav technology was limited only to elevators.

The elevator let them off at a catwalk of sorts that seemed to span across the entirety of the research metropolis. As much as he was hellbent to bring the entire operation down in a lava hot blaze of fiery glory, Jimmy couldn't help but be amazed by the expansive scope of the laboratory, as that was what it obviously was. It wasn't just a city. It was a massive lab, all interconnected by wires, computer chips, and a highly effective main operating super computer that was processing all of the data that each scientist was collecting on his own. If Jimmy had to bet his soul on it, he'd bet that that super computer was in the room of a certain German mad man.

The guards led them onto one of the mini-lifts that were placed at each side of the catwalk in periodic intervals across the span of the catwalk. The lift was only large enough for four people at a time, so to remedy the problem, three of the four armed guards went down the lift first, followed by Jimmy, Cindy, and the remaining two escorts, the guard and the officer. Once they had all assembled at the bottom, the officer drew his pistol and gestured for the two teens to follow him.

"Welcome to the heart of this entire grande operation of ours," the officer that had escorted them into and then out of Meir's lab cordially stated. "The General has given me orders to escort you, upon your agreement to work with us, to your new working facilities. I will be your official escort for the duration of your stay here, meaning that if you have any fantasies of escaping, I would kindly suggest that you abandon them now." The officer cast them each a droll look before continuing.

Several of the scientists cast them curious glances as they walked by. "Every member of our facility is armed to a point. They have been told to shoot on sight if you are seen without myself or any other member of the staff escorting you." Jimmy and Cindy each exchanged a knowing glance. That was going to make their escape attempt all the more difficult.

It was only a few moments before Jimmy and Cindy found themselves in a very familiar yet definitively foreign environment. Test tubes and beakers lined the walls. An impressive supercomputer sat stoically against the wall opposite the entrance. Sealed pressurization chambers were in a connected room to the left. Hydraulic air lock doors with a decontamination chamber in between them led into the room. It was Jimmy's lab yet at the same time it wasn't. It was a cold, sterile, and unapologetically plain laboratory more akin to Professor Meir's lab, including, as they were informed of shortly, their new quarters, a room to the right of the airlock leading into the room that contained two plain beds with simple white sheets.

And of course, the General was there to greet them.

"Since you're both alive and here, I guess I can say that I'm glad that you have both decided to cooperate," he called out in a cheerful tone that made Jimmy's blood boil. He approached the two of them and put a friendly hand on each of their shoulders, a gesture that was unwelcome by both. "Come on, lighten up! We're all friends here, now, right?" Letting go of Cindy's shoulder, he clasped one of Jimmy's hands tightly in a firm handshake while the hand on the boy genius' shoulder shook him in a light, friendly manner. "Neutron, my boy, I hope you know just what an honor it is to be a part of this project. It's a new world in the making, Jimmy."

The secretly seething teenage scientist snatched his hand tersely from the General's grasp. With narrowed eyes and barely controlled contempt for the man, he bit out curtly, "Yeah. The honor's all mine."

"Indeed it is," the General replied coolly with an arrogant grin. "If there's anything you need, anything at all, don't be afraid to ask." He walked past them and began to head out of the room with the officer in tow before Jimmy called out to him to wait, much to Cindy's confusion.

'What is Neutron doing?' she mused silently to herself as she watched, just wanting to be alone with Jimmy so that they could try and figure out what they were supposed to do now that they weren't allowed to go anywhere else around the base without an escort.

"My watch," Jimmy said as the General turned around to face him. "I need it back."

Cindy's eyes darted over to Jimmy's wrist. Silently, she berated herself. How could she have not noticed? The watch was as much apart of Jimmy as that giant brain of his was. It was, in her opinion, the second greatest invention he had ever made, with the all-purpose mechanical dog Goddard coming ahead above all as his greatest scientific achievement. From what she had seen, it was a laser, a buzz saw, a time piece, and a GPS all in one. They must have taken it from him when they had first abducted them.

The General paused for a moment and stared at Jimmy's face for a considerable amount of time. Then, his hand dug into his front left pocket and pulled the watch out. "Our scientists have looked through it, but there's some type of encryption code on it that none of them could get by. Even Meir couldn't get past your firewall. He was annoyed, as was I, but very impressed." He turned the stainless steel multi-purpose time piece over in his hand. "Such a well-protected object must have a lot of important files and functions in here to protect."

"Why should I give it to you?" the steel haired man challenged.

Cindy looked at Jimmy's face, searching for a hint of struggle or panic, but found none. "Unless you want me to just sit around doing nothing all this time, I suggest you hand me back my watch."

At the tone of his voice, the officer found something that he didn't particularly like and drew his pistol, aiming it at Jimmy's head. The General's hand snapped up, catching the officer's eye. As the General lowered his hand, the officer lowered his, and after nervously clearing his throat, Jimmy continued speaking as the General's good eye narrowed ever so slightly in suspicion.

"You don't think I've done my own research on viruses?" Jimmy asked rhetorically. "Of course, I'm not a complete psychopath like you or Meir. My research has been about how to prevent them, how to stop them, and how to create a virus that destroys other viruses."

Cindy's heart raced as she glanced nervously over at Jimmy. He can't be serious, could he? Of course he was; Cindy remembered that sick patch Jimmy made back when they were in grade school. That was probably just a small part of his research into viruses. Given how his science has matured, of course he had to have at some point even jokingly looked into how to cure one of the major viruses plaguing mankind. But, that would mean that Jimmy was actually helping the bad guys, or at least, he would appear to-

...

Oh, James Isaac Neutron, you are one sly son of a gun...

The General, oblivious to the plan being set in motion, came across a sound conclusion with a wry smirk. "With a head that big, I wouldn't doubt that you've got a few tricks up your sleeve on how to fight viruses, especially since you already seem to be bent on fixing the world's food crisis. Nice work on that, by the way. We may definitely need that acceleration formula for the new world order."

"Alright, I'm sold," the man finally said with a slight sigh before tossing the watch over to Jimmy. "Take your stupid watch. It's not like anything you can program in there can actually bail you out of here anyways. What's one watch against an army of well-trained soldiers?" The last part was obviously aimed as a threat and when it appeared to not have fazed either of them, the General snorted slightly and left, the officer following hot on his heels.

When the hydraulic doors to the lab sealed shut with a hiss, Cindy leaned against one of the walls of the lab. "Alright, Nerdtron, that was a pretty nice move tricking him into handing your watch over. But why?"

Jimmy cast her a concerned look that took her aback slightly. His eyes glanced around the rooms warily before glancing down at his watch. His fingers tapped away hurriedly at them. "Why what, Cindy?" he asked in a tone that unnerved the blonde-haired girl. "Look, I've been doing some thinking and I think that they're onto something. I mean, look at the possibilities: a vast world all for the taking, scientific possibilities unhindered by other human progress! It's a gold mine for scientific progression!"

And now, Cindy was thoroughly freaked out. "Jimmy, just what are you talking about? What about what we talked about? Are you honestly-"

"Yes." Jimmy's voice was flat and plain as he glanced up at her, away from his watch. His fingers still danced across them, but less quickly than before, probably because he wasn't concentrating as much on it as before. "I think we should help them." An index finger typed in a single command that caused the watch to pulse blue for a moment before the entire room was engulfed in a light, cerulean glow.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as a light static charge coursed through her body. She looked confusedly at Jimmy, her face expressing both shock and fear. "Neutron! What is going on? What are you talking about?"

Jimmy simply let out a small sigh. "Just give me one second, Cindy. I need to reprogram the room's bugs to send a ghost signal back to the main surveillance room. Quick, give me an emotion read out."

Blinking for a slight moment as Jimmy thrust his watch towards her face, Cindy narrowed her eyes and glared at him, "NEUTRON! STOP BABBLING AND JUST TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Rolling his eyes, Jimmy chuckled wryly. "Anger," he muttered softly. "Of course. Well, at least it's a natural read out." Pressing a few more keys, the room pulsed red for a slight moment before returning to its normal, sterile white hue. Wiping a bead of sweat from his brow, Jimmy sat down on a nearby surface. "Phew," he muttered. "Glad that's over."

"WHAT'S OVER?"

He looked up slightly at a more than irate Cindy who now towered over him, glaring down at the sitting scientist, a look in her hazel eyes projecting her urge to maim the boy in front of her. If there was one thing Cynthia Aurora Vortex hated most, it was being left out of the loop.

Gulping nervously, Jimmy hurried to explain himself. "I just emitted an EMP to neutralize the room's bugs. That's what I needed the watch for. Now, at least this room is safe for us to talk freely in. The emotional readout I asked for is just going to display us arguing like we always do, and on the surveillance system that's monitoring the room, all that it'll see going on is a very life-like holographic projection of us working and arguing. All that stuff I was saying while I was setting up the EMP was stuff to make sure that they think we're on their side. As far as they know, I've gone off the deep end and have started to comprehend their... logic. And I mean that in the loosest sense of the word."

Cindy blinked. She then blinked again. She blinked a third time. "... Uh, go through that second to last part with me again?"

"Certainly," Jimmy drew out with the tone he always used before breaking out into another one of his long-winded speeches. "By using out bodies' own electromagnetic signatures, I've programmed into the EMP pulse to cancel out our signatures on the surveillance systems and instead use the bugs planted around the room to project a simulated holo-projection of us arguing as we work. I use it in my room a lot to fool my folks when me and the guys want to catch a midnight premier," he admitted guiltily.

Although at least half of that was lost on her, Cindy was able to grasp the other half, enough to know that apparently, Jimmy believed the room was bugged, and that he fixed the problem. That led to another question. "How did you know the room was bugged?"

"Better safe than sorry," Jimmy replied handily as he stood up and headed over to examine his new lab, the giant supercomputer in particular. "I mean, come on. This guy is locking us in a room by ourselves with a supercomputer that probably has access to the rest of the base if I tried hard enough and if the firewalls aren't scientifically impossible to breach. He had to have set up some type of monitoring device around here."

The blonde merely rolled her eyes. "I am never letting Sheen take you to another Jet Fusion movie again," she muttered as she crossed her arms and sat down beside one of the control consoles of the supercomputer as Jimmy took the sole chair situated in front of the massive screen. Despite her comment, however, she did have to give Jimmy credit. After dealing with so many super villains in the past, she was a little miffed at herself for not thinking of the possibilities of surveillance bugs in the room herself. However, that did pose quite a problem about their earlier discussion in their first room...

"Do you... think they heard what we were talking about earlier in our room?" she asked, concerned about what that could mean about their plan to escape.

Jimmy's hands froze in place, hovering above the keyboard of the supercomputer slightly. "Since we're both alive..." His voice dropped a few decibels, "or more importantly, you are..." He cleared his throat and continued, "Since we're both alive, I'm going to have to assume that they didn't have that room bugged."

"And why not?" came the inevitable response.

He sighed. That was a good question that he didn't have much of an answer for. Perhaps they were just unprepared for their arrival. Perhaps they were planning on just shooting them anyways or escorting them here right away. Or perhaps they thought that they had everything in control. Whatever it was, Jimmy realized that they had been very lucky that the room_hadn't_ been bugged, or else they would doomed right from the beginning.

"I don't know," came his honest answer. "But the fact that this place even has guest rooms..." It was an attempt to divert his mind on just how close they had come to biting the bullet, perhaps literally, but it was also a disconcerting thought. There was a detention center and there were guest rooms. Which mean people frequently went in and out of the facility. The detention center could possibly hold unruly guards, but more likely than not, the General probably would have just had them shot dead and thrown into the lava or into the sea or forest for the animals to eat. Or, and this was a more chilling thought, that eventually, they were planning to start bringing in human test subjects. They had to eventually, to test the true potential of the virus, and those detention cells would do to hold quite a bit of subjects... And possibly a sizable number of initial carriers.

The guest rooms themselves were another matter altogether, but simpler to hypothesize about. This was a large operation. The General, no matter how much he wanted to, couldn't rule the entire world by himself simply because there wouldn't be enough people helping him. And to build such a project in the first place meant that he needed money and lots of it. Investors and fellow megalomaniacs were probably frequent visitors.

Great minds think alike, it seemed. Although she had no way of knowing about the detention cells, seeing as she had been in the med bay when she came to, she knew about the guest rooms and had come to the same conclusion as him."There's more than just these people, isn't it, Jimmy?" Cindy muttered slightly as she cupped her chin in the palm of her hand as she bent over, peering at him slightly. "If we stop these guys, we have to stop them, or else they just start it all over again with different people."

Jimmy nodded slowly before sighing. "One step at a time, Cindy. I promise. We'll put an end to all this. I swear on it."

She always found his youthful determination so endearing and cute. It was almost as if he was that same naive little boy she remembered all those years ago, going on so many adventures with. Right now, Jimmy had once again become that same little boy in the red T-shirt and blue jean shorts, devising a plan to break them out of a Yolkian prison to save their parents. And that was only the beginning of a series of adventures that lasted well into their junior high school years.

Once again, they were being held captive by a terrible enemy. And once again, Cindy trusted this boy genius to pull through.

* * *

**l 21°20'N 157°30'W l Pearl Harbor United States Naval Base l Aboard the USS Liberty l**

The din of loud dock machinery loading crates of supplies and several tanks of fuel onto multiple naval vessels more than overpowered the soft call of the seagulls as they flew as far away as they could to escape from the insufferable racket. All of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard was a blur of activity as supply trucks moved from one end of the base to the other as they all attempt to load up the seafaring vessels docked in the harbor.

Rows and rows of sailors marched up the gang planks, their rucksacks tossed over their shoulders as they headed into the bowels of the impressive steel behemoths. Aboard the flagship leading the small flotilla, aircraft were being given one last land-based routine check up before the naval group headed out to sea for their next mission, by order of the Joint Chief of Staff and the President of the United States of America.

The mission itself was simple. The USS Marlin was reported sunk three days ago with no word of survivors. For lack of a better term, the pre-mission briefing stated that it was as if the reconnaissance submarine had simply fallen off the face of the Earth. The media circus that quickly ensued gave way for a demand for answers that the military would have been more than happy to give if it weren't for the fact that they honestly didn't have any clue on what was going on. The highest military authorities wanted to know just as much as anyone else stateside just what exactly happened to the USS Marlin and her crew.

Given that it was an American vessel, that a submarine is one very expensive piece of military equipment, several seamen were lost at sea with no bodies to return to their loved ones, and one Hell of a lot of questions that top military brass would love to have answered ASAP, it was only a matter of gathering the right amount of resources before committing to a search and rescue operation around the location of the Marlin's last distress transmission.

And so, the temporary special Naval Task Force 3.11 was born, with _Nimitz-_class aircraft carrier USS Liberty leading as the sole flagship of the operation.

It was a small-scale operation. A submarine lost at sea was as difficult as it could get, what with the whole business of being underwater when it went missing in the first place. The distress communication reported that it had run aground some underwater reefs. The USS Liberty was simply to serve as a platform to launch search helicopters that would view the surrounding area in search of possible threats or signs that there had indeed been some form of survivor that had washed ashore somewhere. The two destroyer escorts were simply there for protection purposes. Meanwhile, more reconnaissance submarines would be combing the murky depths in search of the remains of the USS Marlin, where ever it was. If possible, any bodies that they could recover would also be taken aboard the USS Liberty or one of her escort ships.

Saving anyone was a pipe dream, however. To have survived a submarine running aground an underwater reef was something that was both difficult to survive as well as believe. If the immediate implosion of the vessel hadn't killed the crew, the ensuing intense pressurization of several hundred thousand gallons of water crashing down around the human body would be suffice to put the remainder out of their misery. No, this was a search and rescue op only in name.

Something had attacked the USS Marlin. With modern radar, running a submarine aground was nigh impossible unless an idiot was at the helm, and the top military brass would rather not think that countless crew men lost their lives at the hand of some bumbling idiot that had been allowed to sail an expensive submarine into international waters.

It wasn't until an hour or so past the break of dawn that all of Task Force 3.11 was completely fueled up and had enough supplies to carry them for a round trip. Air horns blaring, the small naval flotilla headed out from Pearl Harbor and towards the coordinates of the last known location of the USS Marlin. The Rear Admiral helming the USS Liberty glanced down at the mission specs one more time before calling out to the bridge navigator.

"Mr. Sampson! Set course for bearing fifteen degrees and fifteen minutes north; one hundred and sixty degrees twelve minutes west." As the bridge navigator began to input the commands into the control console, the commanding officer of Task Force 3.11 stepped up to stare out the bridge. Ladies and gentlemen, let's find us a submarine."

* * *

It wasn't until after the hydraulic doors had let in the officer and a few chefs carting around several forms of breakfast that Jimmy realized two things: 1) That he was very, very hungry and 2) That they had been up almost the entire night as captives of these agents of a new world order that the mysterious General and Professor Meir were attempting to create. As the food was displayed before the drooling teenagers, the officer made no attempt to hide his disdain that "a gentleman of [his] status was to be degraded as a babysitter for mere insignificant specks."

Naturally, Cynthia Aurora Vortex did not take kindly to being called an insignificant speck, but, and bless her heart that she did, this time around, she knew that pummeling the pompous major to within an inch of his life with her bare fists was not a very recommended course of action, considering that as far as the rest of the staff was concerned, she was only a bargaining chip. Instead, she used a devious bit of cunning that appalled even Jimmy. Before he joined in on the fun, of course.

"Hey Jimmy, what's that thing?"

"Huh? Oh, that yellow thing there Cindy? Why, I believe that's an omelette."

"An om-e-lette? Really? I had no idea. Of course, after all, I am just a _mere insignificant speck. _What do I know?"

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself Cindy. I barely know much about it."

"Are you so sure, Jimmy? Come on, tell me _allll_ about this omelette you speak of."

And so followed a forty five minute presentation on the origin of the word omelette, the origin of the food itself, a brief history of the nations it was rumored to have its origins in, and the various national variants of the omelette. And this was, of course, after the shorter, thirty-minute long lecture on the wonders of milk pasteurization. By the end of their little game, the chefs were leaning against each other attempting not to fall asleep, the officer appeared as if he had at some point developed a possibly permanent angry tic to his left eyebrow, and the two teenagers, although even hungrier than before, were doing their best not to burst out in laughter.

Their hunger finally winning the fight against their need to get some much needed revenge against their captors in some way, they quickly chose whatever plates that were still warm enough to eat. The officer and the chefs made a beeline immediately out of the lab and for the next hour, they were both alone again, eating in a comfortable silence. That is, until they eventually caught each other's eyes and burst out in laughter at the successful ploy they just pulled.

That was at least three hours ago. Immediately after eating, the adrenaline of the events that had unfolded since their abduction several hours ago inevitably wore off and they both decided to crash in the beds provided to them before they ended up doing so in the main laboratory. Jimmy was the first to wake up, due not so much to any internal alarm clock as it was to a rather terrifying nightmare that began with Cindy lying in his arms, smiling warmly at him as the tropical sun baked their bodies gently and ended with Cindy lying in his arms, her body cold and rigid, and a victorious Meir standing watch with a smoking gun clutched in his hand.

Jolting up in his bed in a slight start, Jimmy's eyes immediately traveled towards Cindy, who was thankfully well alive and still asleep, her back to the wall and her angelic face pouting cutely in his direction, her hands clasped innocently in front of her. Slowly rising from his bed, Jimmy cautiously approached Cindy's bed, wary of her habit of punching out any who tried to wake her, and crouched by her bedside.

His hand found itself unconsciously brushing a stray golden tress behind her ear before coming down to slowly run itself gently across her soft cheek. It felt like silk. Sighing, he bowed his head low so that his forehead laid against her mattress. His eyes closed forlornly as he attempted to clear the images of his nightmare from his head. "No..." he muttered softly to himself as he raised his head back slightly. "I won't let it happen... You're not going to die on me, Cindy... Not this way... Not ever... I promise..."

Dismissing himself before she could stir herself to semi-consciousness and clock him out, Jimmy made his way towards the lab, eager to get to work on setting their plan into motion. No sooner had the door closed did Cindy mutter under her breath those three precious words that she had never had the courage to say to him while she was awake, not even after all these years of knowing it.

"Jimmy... you idiot..."

No, not those words.

"You... arrogant... dolt..."

Nope, not those either.

"Don't you... know..."

Just a second...

"... love you... too..."

Eh, close enough.

* * *

**Alright, as a reward to all of my loyal readers and reviewers who just so happen to be J/C fluff fanatics, I added a little bit of something for you to enjoy. Romance isn't really a heavy factor in the story, but it is present, you know, in a belligerent sexual tension sort of way. It's a bit of a sub-plot, something to help add as filler to make the story more cohesive as a whole.**

**Any who, I hoped you all enjoyed another chapter of Biohazard and with the school year starting up again soon, I don't know if I can promise as many frequent updates (as if they were frequent at all in the first place), but rest assured, I will not be abandoning this story anytime soon. I want to see it to the end, if not for the satisfaction of doing so, then just for the sake of me having no real social life.**

**...**

**Ahem.**

**Thank you for reading.**

**Sincerely,**

**Management.**


End file.
